You Have Arrived!

Okay, can you believe it? Episode 159. It has been a great journey and I’m very blessed for everyone who downloads and listens to this show. I cannot thank you enough. This show is sponsored by my baby, my heart throb, and that is the International College Of Ministry, a Holy Spirit-filled seminary full of Spirit and truth. Affordable, anointed, work on your own schedule, and we are enrolling now at icmcollege.org. Try it out, there’s free samples. Get a free evaluation. icmcollege.org is sponsoring this show.

Today I’m going to be talking about what happens after you arrive. You took the step, you’re bold, you’ve got courage, what do you do next? This is very important for your success. Stay tuned and again, thank you for listening to another episode of Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self.

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Okay, here we go. Dr. Ray Self here. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for each person listening. Let your anointing fall. Let your Holy Spirit just lead us and guide us and touch us. Open up our ears to hear, our hearts to receive. Use my mouth to speak to you. We give you praise and honor in the name of Jesus. Amen, amen, amen.

So I want to talk to you about settling in. You know, we’ve been talking a lot about– one of my big life things is helping people find their promised land. And when I found my promised land, my life changed forever. I found success, peace, fulfillment, everything. Everything I could not– I never had before. I’m really, really, really big– I wrote a book called Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land. I’m all about helping everyone, even people listening to this show, my students, find your purpose, your place. The promised land, the place you’re called to be, doing what God created you to do. If everybody in the body of Christ could get in place and, and follow the leading of the Lod, doing what they were created to do, oh my gosh can we change the world! Oh my gosh, can we change the world!

But you know, there have been forces, schemes, assignments your whole life to keep you from your promised land and to keep you out of your purpose. But so many of you, praise God, have pushed through. You have persevered, you've done your spiritual warfare, you studied hard, you studied to show yourself approved, and you found it. You found the place God wants you to be, you found your purpose, you are fulfilling your call and it feels good. And I want to say this, I know that a call can be thousands and thousands of things. Millions of things. A call is not always, you know, just traditional Ministry. A call can be… business can be a call. Um, you know, professional things like an attorney can be a call of God, a CPA can be working in the call of God, an engineer can be working in the call of God. We need these things, God needs these things. A businessman finances the kingdom of God– if it weren't for entrepreneurs, we probably wouldn't have a church. 

So… but… you've, you've studied, you've did your spiritual warfare, you've you've discovered who you are, you've overcome the schemes of the enemy, especially that big old scheme of illegitimacy that has attacked you for your whole life. All these attacks to keep you away from what God has for you. You've conquered it, you did it, you've arrived! Hallelujah! You arrived, you've arrived! You're there, you made it! Now, there are some important things that must take place. Maybe you're at the Jordan River getting ready to cross over and maybe you have crossed over. But you know, so many people reach their promised land and fail. And it's, it's sad… and I– I've seen this many times. They, they step into the purpose, in their call, and it gets sabotaged. It just doesn't work the way it should have worked. What is going on? What is happening there? And the principle that I want to talk to you about is the principle of settling in, of, of building roots, of establishing yourself, which is very, very critical. And you know, this verse - I want to read a very familiar verse to you out of the book of uh, out of the book of Psalms. Let me find it here in my electronic Bible…here we go…there it is. “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the Lord [ungodly] or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and his law he meditates day and night. He'll be like a tree firmly planted…” he'll be like what? “...a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields fruit in season and his leaf does not wither and whatever he does he prospers.” 

In the promised land, the key to prosperity is to plant yourself, especially by a stream of water. Streams of water represent movement of the Holy Spirit. You know, out of our belly shall flow rivers of living water. So the living water, the streams of water, the streams of water, the streams of God. When you plant yourself, you made– in your promised land and you plant yourself. Now when a tree is planted, it doesn't move. One thing– I love to garden and I do a lot of gardening. And whenever I move a plant I cringe a little bit because transplanting shrubs and flowers so many times kills them because shrubs and flowers and vegetables need to be established in one place. Now I'm not saying there’s not a time where we need to move. I've talked about that a lot. But once we do move, we need to establish and get still and plant ourselves, establish ourselves, commit ourselves, be faithful to this, and let your roots grow deep. And when you do this, the promise is, the promise is you'll be like a tree planted by streams of water. Again, look at this one more time. You'll bear fruit, your leaf will not wither, whatever you do will prosper. That's because you planted yourself. 

People… in life… one of the principles I've experienced in my life - and you probably have in yours - is that time when you're in the desert. You're not where you used to be but you have not arrived where you need to be. You're in that in-between place. It's the desert. And that seems like a, a bad place but it's really not. You remember in the desert is when the Israelites were taken care of by God completely and God provided the entire law of Moses to them; all the requirements of holiness and righteousness and worship and praise - everything. All of God's requirements were given to them in the desert before they made it to the promised land. So He was teaching his people and training His people. Actually, everything he did was a picture of Christ, but He was training his people so when they got to the promised land, they'd be ready to do what? To plant themselves and establish themselves. What some people do they come out of the desert they get into their promised land and instead of establishing themselves, they are still restless. Instead of building a home, they live in a tent or a camper. You see, what God wants us to do is commit and commitment means you establish yourself. You're committed. And when the storms come - and they will come - and the attacks come - and they will come - you are not moved. So many people… they get to their promised land, fulfilling their call, and then the attacks happen and the assignments begin to hit and they waver and they start to pick up and move again. And see, when you keep transplanting, your roots do not get established and you do not prosper. Do you understand me? Establishing yourself in your promised land takes work, it takes patience, it takes perseverance, it takes the willing to– willingness to not quit - one of the greatest forms of perseverance. This means whatever the enemy does, I will not quit. You'll be discouraged - I've been discouraged -  but you do not quit. You'll have days when you feel depressed but you do not quit. You'll have days when you're sick but you do not quit. You'll have days when you're completely discouraged but you do not quit. You'll have days when you want to quit, you desire to quit, but you don't do it; and ve been through this and you guys know what I'm talking about. I've had many a time I said, “I want to give this up,” I can't keep doing it, Lord. I can't do it, I can't do it. Lord, I'm tired, Lord, I'm tired.” But you– something in me goes no I'm going to keep on, I'm going to keep on, I'm going to keep on. 

I want to tell you something, folks. We're not running a sprint here, we're running a marathon and we have to keep a steady pace and establish our pace and plant ourselves, commit ourselves. So your commitment can be– can take a lot of shapes and forms. You know, a new commitment to your family, to your church, to your job, to whatever the assignment God has given you. Commit fully to it and when you commit fully to it, again, in Psalms 1:3, “whatever he does will prosper.” isn't that– ain't that just incredible? I mean, it's just absolutely, absolutely amazing. He talks a lot about the promised land throughout scripture. And there's some other principles I want to share with you just real quick, in Exodus and Deuteronomy, is the Israelites were preparing to cross over the Jordan River into Is– Israel. The Lord gave them a lot of instructions and the instructions to me were all about obedience. The Lord had given them the law and many instructions for how to worship, instructions on praise, instructions on living, eating, um, marriage, relationships, you name it, the Lord had given them instructions. 

And one of the key things He said to them over and over and over again is, “Obey Me, obey me, obey me.” In the famous chapter of Deuteronomy 28, the Lord gives incredible promises. And He said in verse one, Deuteronomy 28, “Now it shall be if you diligently obey the Lord your God being careful to do all his commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; and all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord you God:” then of course, it goes to list a lot of blessings. “Blessed shall you be in the city, blessed shall you be in the country.” Um, and he goes on. “Blessed shall you be when you come in, blessed shall you be when you go out.” And he lists a number of blessings for obeying God. And so part of establishing yourself in the promised land is obedience. Now, Christ has fulfilled the law. Our obedience to God now comes from the Holy Spirit residing within us. We are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Paul said very clearly all those who are led by the Holy Spirit are the sons of God. If we want to obey God, the first thing is you must be saved, know Jesus Christ as your savior, and then we must, we must, must, must be led by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit contains all of God's requirements. Everything God has for you, He has given to Jesus and Jesus has given to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will give to you. 

Jesus said, in the gospel of John, He shall– “He gives to Me…” “He shall take of mine, disclose it to you.” I call it the chain of command. God downloads to Jesus, Jesus downloads to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit gives it to you. So in order to prosper and to commit– the way you commit is you obey God and the way you obey God is you listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you to do. 

And obviously, read your Bible. Don't, don't disobey anything scripture tells you to do. But obedience to God is critical in your promised land. In, in Deuteronomy, the Lord talked about this, and in Exodus, the Lord talked about this, okay? Over and over and over. You know, the blessings of obedience. And the way you obey God, again, is by listening and obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit, and He will help you establish yourself. So establishment of yourself is having the fruit of the Spirit which is faithfulness and longsuffering. Be faithful, be faithful. I've seen people um… that I remember years ago– I had uh, several people who told me they were called to my church, and I had a wonderful Church, the Lord had called them to my church and this was the will of God for their life. And I put them into a leadership role, I called them my ministers, and several of them, a number of them, were very gifted, very anointed, but they weren't faithful. I could not count on them to show up on time; or sometimes even show up. And so they… to me, unfaithfulness means you're not established and if you're not established and planted, you will not prosper. So it means I am committed, I'm going to be trustworthy, I'm going to be faithful, I'm going to be honest, I'm going to operate with integrity, I'm not going to be easily swayed or moved, I'm going to be like that oak tree. And when the wind comes, the storm comes, I am still, still standing. I use the analogy– I live in Winter Park, Florida, uh, Central Florida, and we are subject to hurricanes here. I've been through… been down here about 15 years, I've been through four, four hurricanes. And on the corner of my lot is a very large oak tree. Uh, the, I mean, the, the trunk of this oak tree probably the diameter of the trunk of this oak tree is over maybe 7 feet. It– it's an incredible oak tree. And this oak tree has survived 100 mile hour winds and storms and lightning and whatever is thrown at it. It has survived four hurricanes and it is still standing. And the reason it is still standing is this oak tree is strong. And the reason it is strong is its roots go deep and wide. Deep and wide. And that oak tree is not going anywhere. 

And that's what it takes to prosper. You're not going anywhere. This is what God's called me to do. I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be faithful, I'm going to be trustworthy, I'm going to be obedient to God to the best of my ability. And you're going to slip up, you're going to mess up; I mean, we're human, we slip up, we mess up. But when we do mess up, we repent. “God, I messed up, I'm sorry.” If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Then the Bible says also in James, “Confess your faults one to another and pray that you may be healed.” You got to be transparent and honest. You're not going to be perfect. You're going to mess up, you'll have days when you, you don't, don't show up and don't do right. I've done some– I've done some– I've had some senior moments that are just unreal, unreal. I remember a funny one: I was uh, teaching a live class - it's probably been five or six years ago - and it's a webinar. It's a live class and it starts at uh, well, I was where– I was in West Tennessee. The class started at 7 o'clock, I was traveling and I was in… I left Florida and I was up in Memphis, Tennessee and class is on a Tuesday night at 7:00. Well, I knew that I was in a Marriott Hotel and had a very good Wi-Fi signal so it wasn't going to be any problem for me to teach this class, okay? So I'm up there, and my beautiful daughter calls me and said, “Hey, Dad, you want to go to Starbucks and have coffee?” So I'm sitting at Starbucks having coffee and just enjoying uh, spending time with my beautiful daughter and all of a sudden, I get a call from my IT guy. And he says, “Dr. Ray.” I said, “Hey, Steve! What's up?” He goes, “Where are you?” I said, “I'm at Starbucks.” “What are you doing at Starbucks?” I said, “Well, I'm having coffee with my daughter.” He says, “Why are you having coffee with your daughter?” I said, “Because I love her.” He goes, “How about class that you're supposed to be teaching now?” And so I had forgotten totally about it and so that's not really being faithful, that's being forgetful and that does happen and you slip up. I did rush to the hotel. I was about 15 minutes late logging into class but you know, we did get the class done.

Sometimes you know, we're unfaithful because we forget. Other times we're unfaithful because we're tired, we're burned out, we just don't show up. But I'm going to tell you something. When you are unfaithful and nobody's perfect, just repent. Admit your faults. You know, I, I love people that are transparent. If my leaders… if they had– some of these leaders that were not faithful if they’d just come to me and said, you know, “Dr. Self, I know I promised you I would be here and I didn't make it. Please forgive me. I will do better next time.” I'm fine with that. But what I'm not okay with is people who are unfaithful and just make excuses. And you see, you will not be blessed there. You will not be blessed in your promised land. See, you have to be planted by the streams of Living Water, and all that you do will prosper. So find your promised land. You know, discover yourself, discover your purpose. Fight for it, get into your created purpose– Remember your promised land is doing what you're called to do in the place called to be. Get into that place and commit to it fully. And it's not easy. It is not easy, you know? It's, it's like exercise, you know? You can't exercise three times a month or every other year if you're going to get in shape; you have to make a commitment to exercise almost every day. It, it takes uh, commitment to do that. And the results to consistency and commitment are always good and the Lord wants us to be committed and consistent in our call, in our purpose. And you're going to have to overcome obstacles. There will be a– attacks and hindrances. I call them harassing spirits. You must recognize you're being harassed, you're being hindered, and refuse to let the enemy hinder you. Say, “No! In the name of Jesus Christ, I will not be hindered. This is what I'm called to do and you will not stop me. I'm going anyway, in Jesus’ name” 

So I hope this show has been a blessing to you. It's an honor and a privilege and thank you again for listening to… what are we? Episode 159 of Self Talk, can you believe it? Heavenly Father, I thank you that with your help, we can commit to you and move and plant our roots deeper. We can go deeper with you and establish ourselves with you. I thank you for the promise that we'll be blessed. But Father, we do it first because we love you and we want to obey you, Father. So Lord, anyone listening to me who has not been faithful to their call, I ask right now that they would just, just repent… repent and say, “Lord, I'm sorry I recommit now. I know, Lord, you're faithful.” And just to forgive us when we confess our faults. And so Father, I thank you for this opportunity. I thank you, Father, for your promises. I thank you for who you are and I thank you for everyone listening to the show. Touch them now, Holy Spirit, touch them now. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Well, we did it. Episode 159. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope the show was a blessing to you. Again, it's an honor for everyone who downloads and subscribes. I just thank you. Thank you so much. Again, this show is sponsored by the International College of Ministry. On our website at icmcollege.org, there's all kinds of free stuff that I really think you would enjoy. If you click on free lessons at the top, you'll see all kinds of lessons in spiritual warfare, the Holy Spirit, Christian doctrines, um, there's a couple of fireside chats where I prophesied to a whole lot of people there, it's all free. There's another free thing on the website, it's called a free evaluation. You say, “You know what, I'm not sure I want to enroll but I'd kind of like to know what it would cost and what it would take for me to get my degree.” You fill out the free evaluation form and we'll tell you, we'll send you an email and tell you exactly what it will take to get your degree: how much it will cost you, uh, your financial options, and even maybe scholarship options. We have scholarships for people who have hardships. If you have a financial hardship and you say, “I really want to do this. I'm called by God. I want to get equipped, I want to get my degree, I want to get that credibility, I want to be fully trained for my ministry but I just cannot afford it,” we'll help you, we will help you, okay? That's icmcollege.org. Thank you for listening. Be sure and go to the website. Click the links and the notes and subscribe. Don't forget to email me if you got any questions or topic ideas, those would be great. Email drrayself@gmail.com. d r r a y s e l f @gmail.com. I appreciate you very, very, very much. Uh, one quick way to the website is– to the podcast website is icmcollege.org/selftalk. So anyway, enough of all those announcements. This feels like an infomercial all of a sudden. But if you order in the next 10 minutes, not only will I give you one, but two– just kidding. Or maybe some Flex Seal that you can tape something to keep it from leaking. I don't know, I think I'm kind of rambling here. I love you much. God bless y'all, thank you so much for listening to Self Talk. This is me, Dr. ay Self.