What I Know is True

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Hey, I'm Dr. Ray Self. Welcome to my show, Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self. That's why we called the show Self Talk. Get it? Today's a very important show. I want to get transparent about my faith, my core beliefs, and why I believe it. I think this is a time for me just to share my heart. I see a lot of stuff, um, a lot of arguments online, uh, that are very disturbing to me, theological beliefs that are very disturbing. I'm not here to argue. I'm just here to tell you humbly what I believe and why I believe it. And I hope it will touch your heart. The show is always sponsored and, and made possible by the ministry I founded, the International College of Ministry, icmcollege.org, we're always enrolling. I would love to have you as a student if you want to finish your education and get equipped for the call of God on your life. Well, let's get started. Thank you so much. Well, heavenly Father, I pray for everyone listening to this show that this show would be a blessing to them and uh, that your Holy Spirit would be with me as I, I present this material and this, these thoughts. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

You know, sometimes I have a habit, good habit, bad habit, I'm not sure, of browsing through the internet and social media, and I, I see a lot of theological arguments, people arguing for all kinds of stuff. Um, arguing for Calvinism, arguing for the Catholic Church, arguing for um, the different denominations, arguing that you have to be baptized in order to be saved, arguing that tongues is of the devil, arguing this and that. And the problem I have with all that is that the arguments are just dead. It's all flesh. It's just dead. It grieves my spirit. There's no anointing in the arguments. It's just all flesh talk, intellectualism, and I don't see that it's accomplishing much for the Lord at all. I don't see the anointing of the Holy Spirit or God in it. And sometimes I'll enter into the arguments. Somebody be arguing for the validity of the Mormon church, or somebody's arguing for the validity of Jehovah's Witnesses. And sometimes it's just so grievous that I have to respond to it. 

But the problem again, is arguing, I don't think accomplishes much at all. God is wanting to have a relationship with us, His creation, and He made a way for us. And I, I want to talk to you about what I believe and why I believe it. Now, listen, I, I know I put down some of my accomplishments in the show description, and I do not want to come across as being um, prideful. Uh, you know, you know, I'm not, I'm not, and people know me, I'm not a prideful man at all. I will say this, though, I have been a Christian for a very long time. I was saved in the year 1961. I was 10 years old. It was a very real experience for me. I walked 

down to the altar, to the front of the church, gave my life to Christ. I was baptized on Sunday night, Easter Sunday evening in 1961. Um, and when I came out of that water, and I went home, everything changed for me. Everything changed for me. I'll never forget that my world looked different. The next day, I got up and I walked out into my backyard. I lived in a beautiful area, East Memphis, uh, East Memphis, Tennessee. And I walked out my backyard, and I, I looked, and the grass was greener, and the sky was bluer, and the sounds were, I remember hearing the birds. And I know it, it, it sounds kind of ridiculous, but I could tell that everything was more alive and more vibrant. It's like I could, I could see beauty I had not been able to see. It's like my hearing had improved, and I knew something about me was different. I knew that I was different, and I knew that God had done something in me. I felt like a different person. So it was very, very real to me. And that's been, listen, that's a long time. 

Now, I wish I could tell you guys that in the um, 60-some odd years that I've been saved, I guess it's 65 years that I've been saved, that I walked this holy and righteous life the whole time I was saved. Well, no, I didn't. I had some years, especially in my college years and, and after that, some years after that, where I was not walking with the Lord, you know, and not that I didn't realize that I was a Christian. I knew I was a Christian, but I, I chose temptation. Some people say you fall into temptation. Well, no, I didn't fall into temptation. I, I chose the temptation. And I knew it was wrong. And my heart had gotten hard, and my heart had gotten where I, I would do these things that I knew I shouldn't be doing. And I remember being convicted, but I also remember I was able to squash that voice. I was able to quench that voice inside of me that was telling me no. And I seared my own conscience. And I, now listen, I wasn't an evil person. I was just doing things I shouldn't be doing and things of the world that I shouldn't be doing. And I did that for, you know, about 10 years. But I, I'll tell you this, and some of you have heard my story. I went through a very, very difficult season in my life after that. Very, very difficult season. And then in 1986, I'll never forget this. In 1986, I don't want to make this a long story, I, just because I want to get into what my core values, my core beliefs are. I feel it's time for me to, to, to get more transparent. 

But in 1986, when I was at my lowest point, I was deeply depressed, deeply disturbed. I'd had a lot of really horrible things going on in my life. Things that even today are difficult to, to even talk about. But I met a man. I was introduced to him by my mother, a man named John Boatright. I'll never forget him. Went over to his house. I walked into his living room. He looked at me, and he said, "Hey, Ray, have you ever heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit?" I told him I didn't know what he was talking about. He took me into the Bible, and he showed me Acts 1 verse 8. “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you. He showed me Acts chapter 8 when Philip went up to Samaria, and many people believed through his ministry, and then the apostles came up and laid hands on them that they might be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then he showed me Acts 10, where people were filled with the Holy Spirit. Then he showed me Acts 19 where Paul laid hands on believers and they received the Holy Spirit, and I knew at that point there was something more for me that God had for me. And John put his hand on my head after I– he asked me to repent of a number of things. I had a lot to repent of. He put his hand on my head, and he said a prayer,, something like, "Lord, I baptize my brother Ray with the Holy Spirit." And when he said those words, a feeling came upon me, something I had never experienced before. It was a feeling of, and the way I describe it was, it was like somebody was pouring warm oil all over my body. And here I am in a very deep, dark, depressing, stressful, awful time of my life. And all of a sudden, I felt perfect peace. And I felt like this warm oil flowing over my body. That was, was, that was the best way I could describe it. And I felt this peace. And then I felt this incredible sense of love come over me. And at the same time, I knew something very, very powerful was happening in my life. 

And I sat there for quite some time. I remember my mother asking me, she was in the room. My eyes were closed. She kept saying, "Ray, are you okay? Are you okay?" And I really, I couldn't move. I, I, I did– I didn't want it to stop. Whatever was happening to me, which I didn't fully understand. I did not want it to stop. But now looking back, I will tell you bluntly, I was being baptized with the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is real. My– Now here I was a Christian. Although I had fallen away, but I was saved. I was saved. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit put a new zeal, a new power, a new anointing, a new level in my Christian walk that I could, could not even fathom. It just…could not even imagine. When I finally kind of, quote, came to, John told me some things, and he said, "Ray," he said, "From now on, you'll look at the Bible, and you'll see things you've never seen before and understand things you've never understood before." And I thought, okay, okay, well, that, that sounds cool. Course, you know, even though I had read the Bible a lot then, but I thought, that's interesting. And he said, “Ray, don't be surprised that when you pray for people and put your hand onthem that are sick, that people will get well.” I said, “Okay, I'll lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Like Mark 16.” Uh, he said, “Don't be surprised if you get into spiritual warfare and you have to cast out some demons.” That kind of scared me a little bit. Okay. All right. Cast out demons. Oh boy. And he said, "If you feel a funny language in your mouth, don't let the devil tell you it's gibberish. It's not gibberish. It's called tongues." I said, "Well, okay, John, if I, if I begin to speak in tongues, I will try not to think that it is gibberish." And I left his house, um, and I was driving home, uh, in a separate car by myself. And as I was driving home, I began to speak in tongues just a little bit in the car. 

But everything he told me came to pass. Everything he told me came to pass. From that day forward, I began to see things in scripture I had never seen. I, I felt like I understood things I had never understood. And all of a sudden, it was like I could hear God speaking to me. The gifts of the Holy Spirit from Corinthians 12, uh, began to flow through me. Words of knowledge, words of wisdom, prophecy, faith, healing, miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, all of that began to happen for me. I had to get in the right environment. I had to get into a church. I went to a charismatic church that understood the gifts of the Spirit and allow the gifts of the Spirit to flow. 

So, I know I could get off on this, but it was an extremely exciting, life changing time for me. And so, one of the core beliefs I have is the baptism of the Holy Spirit is real. It does not come always at salvation. It can come at the moment you're saved. You know, where my dear Baptist friends, I love them dearly, they believe that the moment you're saved, you have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Well, I can tell you right now, didn't happen for me. And I can explain it to you very clearly. When you're saved, it is a work of the Holy Spirit. You're regenerated. You're redeemed. You're justified. You're declared righteousness. You're given eternal life. You're adopted into the kingdom of God. That's salvation. It is incredible. And it is a work of the Holy Spirit. But there's more the Holy Spirit wants to do for you, and that is give you power through the baptism. In Acts, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit's come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses,” Um, in the end of– last verses of Luke, Jesus told His disciples who were saved, wait for the power of the Holy Spirit. Okay? Wait for the power of the Holy Spirit. “Then you will be My witnesses.” And so there's two things. There's work of the Holy Spirit to save you, and there's a work of the Holy Spirit to fill you or baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And it is beautiful, and scripture supports this. Acts 1, Acts 8, Acts 10, Peter preaching, Acts 19, and then in Jude it says, "Do not be drunk with wine, but be continually filled with the Holy Spirit." So that's a core belief of mine. 

So what do I believe? I'll tell you what I believe. I believe in the beginning God created us. Man chose to rebel. I believe God, in His sovereignty, gave mankind a free will. You see, by creating us with a free will, God knew that we could freely choose to love Him. We could freely choose to serve Him. We could freely choose to obey Him. God gave us freedom. That was His sovereignty. People go, “Well, God's in control.” Well, He could control everything, but He does not control you unless you allow Him to control you. God gave mankind a choice. That's why Jesus said, "For God so loved the world, He gave his only begotten son, whoever chooses to believe,” makes the choice, “...to believe shall be saved." I don't, I do not agree with the Calvinist who preached this, God– only– those that get saved are those that God has already chosen, and He chooses them by making his grace irresistible. Well, the doctrine of irresistible grace is nowhere in scripture. Nowhere in scripture. It's a choice. Is God sovereign? Yes. He gave us a free will. That's my belief. 

So, man chose to rebel. Adam and Eve rebelled. Sin entered the world. We had a problem. And at that point, the Bible makes it clear we needed a savior. We needed a savior. So, what does God do? He lays down the law. He gives us the law, a very strict and tough law. It was a law of requirements to be holy and righteous. It was a law that actually nobody could fulfill the law except for one man, Jesus, when He came to, came to earth. The law, there were 630 laws of God given by God to Moses. One of the laws was if you disobey any one of the 633, you're under a curse, and you're completely disobedient. So, it was like a test with 633 questions, and if you miss one question, you failed the test. And that was a very, very strict code of contact, conduct that nobody, and I mean nobody, could pass. It was something that nobody could do. Nobody could do on their own. The law, as Paul said later, gave us knowledge of sin. You see, rules and regulations point out your failures. So, the law gave us a knowledge of sin. The law in the Old Testament gave us the clear need for salvation. We could not be righteous on our own. We could not fully obey God on our own. Therefore, we need a savior. And the law points out to that, that we need a savior. Paul tells us in the book of Galatians, the law was our tutor to lead us to Christ. Now that Christ has come, we're no longer under the law. A tutor was a teacher. The law taught us about God. The law teaches us God's requirements for righteousness and holiness, which we can't do on our own. And if I cannot achieve this on my own, I need help. 

So Jesus comes, and in Corinthians it said, “He who knew no sin became sin.” Jesus comes to earth, you know, born of a virgin. Jesus, for, when he's 30 years old, starts a three-year ministry showing us and modeling us the Christian walk and what a Holy Spirit-filled Christian can do. Jesus was our example. He was our model. Jesus also was baptized with the Holy Spirit. You see, when John baptized Him in the River Jordan, He didn't need to be saved. He needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit fell upon Him. So Jesus modeled for us what we needed to do to be a Christian. He gave us all kinds of, of guidelines. Forgive, you shall be forgiven. The meek shall inherit the earth. Okay? Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbor. All these things. Jesus taught us a lot. But then Jesus knew there was more that needed to be done. He knew that we needed salvation. And the only way for salvation was He needed to die on the cross. Why did He need to die on the cross? Because the Bible says the wages of sin are death. We've all sinned. Everybody has sinned. The price for sin is death. So Jesus voluntarily, that's a key word, He voluntarily decided to sacrifice His life to pay for our rebellion, to pay the price for our sin, to pay the consequences, the consequences of my sin, your sin, of all our failures, and everything we have done to rebel against God. Jesus voluntarily chose to sacrifice Himself to pay that price. Our job is to believe that and accept that by faith. When we do that, what Jesus did on the cross is credited to us. That's why the Bible can say, "He who knew no sin,” in Corinthians, “became sin that we might be made righteous." 

So Jesus on the cross took our sin, took our disobedience, we could not obey the law, took all our failures, not obeying the Ten Commandments, not obeying the law of Moses, everything we did that was against the law of God, all that consequence, Jesus took upon Himself on the cross. Okay? Then on the third day, He rose in victory from all of that. And when we believe and we accept Jesus as our savior, when we say, "I believe Jesus died on the cross for me. I repent of my sins. I accept that sacrifice by faith," The Holy Spirit comes upon you, and we are created again. We're born again. And we are given salvation, eternal life, and all the benefits of that. And that comes by believing that Jesus died on the cross and made me righteous. 

You see, Jesus took what I deserved and gave me what He deserved. Jesus was righteous. That was His to own. But instead of owning that, He, He, He imparted that to me. The book of Romans calls the gift of righteousness. When you are righteous, you are in right standing with God. I am in right standing with God. If you believe Jesus is the son of God and you've been saved through Him, you also are in right standing with God. We are saved by faith through grace, not by works. This is a free gift. It's free. You know why it's free? Because you couldn't earn it. You can't do it. Every religion in the world except for Christianity, is works based. You have to earn, try to earn your salvation. And it's, it's pretty much impossible. But with Christianity, salvation is a free gift given by faith in Jesus Christ. And this is what I believe. This is what the Bible teaches over and over and over again. In the resurrection, you see, by faith, I'm identified with Jesus on the cross. My sins are taken away. They're– I'm paying the price for my sins, or the price is being paid. 

Then He comes out. He raises from the dead on the third day. And by faith, Paul makes it very clear, we have risen with Christ. So by believing this, all of a sudden, like, I'll talk about myself. When I believe this, all of my sins and guilt and shame was taken upon Jesus and I believe that, and it's, and, and it literally happens to me. Then I believe Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, and when He comes out of the grave on the third day, I also believe that I rose from the dead and I am in victory with Jesus Christ. So what happens is this miracle, incredible miracle, is, by faith, what Jesus did on the cross is you. It, it's, it's happening to you. You're dying for your sins with Jesus. And you're raising in victory out of the grave, completely new man in total victory from all of that with Jesus. And that is the essence of Christianity.

Now, with this incredible gift that God has given us, the question is, how do we respond to that? The book of James says faith without works is dead. Well, it doesn't mean you work to get your faith. It means because we have faith and because of what Jesus has done for us, we should respond to that with forgiveness, with love, with kindness, with praise, with worship, with obeying God, hearing His voice. “My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me.” I know I'm packing a lot into a really small podcast, but for some reason today I felt, you know what, I need to share my faith. I need to share my beliefs with someone. I hope this is, this is blessing you. Now, because of the salvation and being filled with the Holy Spirit, now I respond. Now, what people do so many times, what religious people are doing in the world today is they're saying Jesus's death was not sufficient. That's what the Catholics say. It's not sufficient. You still have to do whatever the Pope says. You have to do the Eucharist. You have to pray the rosary, which is saying Jesus didn't fulfill it on the cross. But you see, that's not true. Jesus took it to the cross. And I am deemed righteous by my faith in Jesus Christ. I can't add to this. I can't, I can't, you know, nullify that by saying there's, there's more I have to do. What I have to do is believe and respond. 

Now, living right and living holy doesn't save me. I live holy and do right because of my salvation. It is a response to my salvation. I'm not living right and holy to get saved. I'm living right and holy because I am saved. Then we come to things like love and forgiveness and giving. Well, some people want to put you, you know, we'll talk about tithing. They want to put you back under the law of the tithe. Well, that's a little tricky question because when you go, go back under the law of the tithe, the law of the tithe was always grain, food, part of your harvest, and it was taken to the temple. Then the priest was only allowed um, their, their portion of the tithe was given to the priest once every three years. And it was taken to the storehouse so that to feed the widows and the orphans and this kind of stuff. Um, but there is a principle of giving that we learn from the tithe. We're not under the law of tithing. You know, again, we're not, we're not under the law anymore. But I learned that God wants His storehouse to be full. He wants the poor to be fed. And He wants the priests to be taken care of. So, what is that symbolic of? It's symbolic of the church today. God wants the church to be His storehouse, and He wants the church to be a place that, that will take care of people. So Paul said, "Let us each give from our heart." God loves a generous giver. And Paul warned us, "If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. You give bountifully, you reap bountifully." So giving from the heart, giving from the Holy Spirit, is critical. What is the Holy Spirit directing you? I, I used to say some people are mathematical givers. They just give mathematical. “Well, I made $300 last week, so I give 30 bucks. Well, I made $1,000, so I give 100 bucks.” But you see, the Bible says those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. 

So, what God wants us to do, another critical thing I should have mentioned earlier, is once we're saved, born again, filled with the Holy Spirit, God expects the Holy Spirit to direct our life. And when you’re led by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will give you ways to give and will even tell you how to give and how much to give to your church. Is tithing wrong? No, it's not wrong. Tithing is not wrong, it's just that what God wants is giving from the heart. So, I used to tell my church members, tithing is uh, a teacher. It's, maybe uh, your minimum, your minimum. But what's the Holy Spirit directing you to give? You see, I think when you give by the Holy Spirit, you're not worried about 10%. You're giving above and beyond all the time. We're not under the, law of tithing anymore, but the principle of giving to the storehouse is still in effect. People say, "Well, you know, tithing goes back to Abraham." Well, yeah, Abraham gave one time uh, of the spoils of war. And so, to me, that's not a good example. Uh, there's some other examples of, of people, you know, giving tithes, but it's usually a one-time deal. There's never um, I don't see anything in scripture where somebody continually tithe every time they had any type of uh, of increase or profitability. However, I did know that through tithing, widows and orphans were fed. The storehouse was full. The church was taken care of. The priests were taken care of. And so I follow that principle if that makes sense. Okay? Giving from the heart. Giving from the heart. And when you do that, you, I got to warn you, you're going to be giving a lot more than 10%. So if you're a pastor listening to me, don't freak out here. If they give by the Holy Spirit, it'll be, it'll be greater than 10%. I promise you that. So that's kind of my faith. You know, that's, you know, what I believe. 

Um, I know people will argue, but the problem is arguing theology doesn't really accomplish much. What God wants more than anything; He offered Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ voluntarily took the job. Important. He didn't murder His Son. Jesus voluntarily took the job. And because of that, now we have a relationship with God. And that's it. I want to close with it. The most important thing, is not the church, the Bible, and all this stuff and theology. The most important thing is God has made a way for you to have a relationship with Him, to talk to Him, to experience Him, to be led by Him, to, to literally be a son and daughter with a deep abiding, communicating type relationship with God. We have, we can come directly to the throne room, directly to the throne of grace. The book of Hebrews talks about that. And all that Jesus did now, despite all of our rebellion and all of our sin, we now have access to God. God wants an intimate relationship with us. And He's made a way for it. And that's what Christianity is about. Through Jesus, we have a way to have an intimate relationship with God. And that's what God wants most for your life. 

Woo! Man, I packed a whole lot into about 26 minutes here. Thank you so much for listening to my show today. Lord, I pray for anyone listening to the show that they would be blessed by it. And Lord, if I've said anything that was not of you, please let it fall to the ground. Lord, I thank you, Father, again for the opportunity to share your word and your truth. Lord, bless everyone. Let your anointing fall upon everyone listening to this show and whatever we need to know and do, and respond. Help us to respond the way you would have us respond. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Well, thanks again for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. Again, I always ask  you to do this. to help me with the show, to get the word out to more people., If you go to the website for the show icmcollege.org/selftalk, and there subscribe. And then don't forget to share, you know, download and share the show and write a review. All those things help us increase the number of downloads, the number of people that we can reach. I appreciate you. If you'd like to donate to the show, which would really help us because we're doing this pretty much for, on our own expense. That, the best way is go to icmcollege.org/donate and you can pick out whatever fund you want. God bless you. It all helps us. God bless you. Thank you so much for listening to Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self. Get it? Love you much. Thank you.

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