Activating the Promises of God

Hey, welcome to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self - that's me, Dr. Ray Self. So a little introduction to today. I've been concerned for a long time about an issue of the Bible. You know, if the Bible is the truth, and it's the word of God which I believe it is, why aren't we experiencing the promises of God? God has given us incredible promises, you know, abundance, uh, abundant life, healing, deliverance, um, authority, all kinds of wonderful promises but it seems like we're not always experiencing it. Well, we know God's not a liar but what is the issue? Why are we not experiencing what God promised in the Bible? That's a very good question and I want to talk about that in today's show. And by the way, this show is brought to you by the International College of Ministry, a Holy Spirit-filled online college and seminary, now enrolling at icmcollege.org. Check it out, check it out. You can get a free evaluation, uh, just…you know, it's free. Get an evaluation to see what it would take for you to get a college degree. Check out some courses, we got free courses, you know, free lessons that you can download, very interesting topics. Anyway, thanks for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self, that's me, and it is a blessing…and uh, be sure and share this with many people. Download it, share it, tell people about it. Let's get the word out, okay? God bless you, thanks again for listening.

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Okay, here we go. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for today's episode. I thank you for everyone listening to today's show. I just pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit will be with us and touch us, and give me the revelation that I need and give us the information that we need, Father. Help us, Father, to learn. Help us to know, help us to experience you on a deeper level. So Father, I thank you for your word, I thank you for your truth. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. 

So, if you've been a Christian for a while, you know the Bible gives us a lot of incredible promises and I love promises. So when God promises something, He means it, right? But it seems like we don't always experience what God has promised, you know? For instance, let's, let's talk about a couple of things. So we have the– this scripture, maybe the most famous scripture in the Bible, in Isaiah 53:5 it says - now this is a prophecy about Jesus but there's a promise in the prophecy - “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” Healed. That's healing. Now, a little controversy about the scripture. Some traditional denominations say, “Well, that, that's a spiritual healing.” Actually, when you look at that word in the original Hebrew, it is referring to physical healing. It's the same word that is used multiple times in the Bible, in scriptures talking about being made well, being made whole, physical healing. So don't let people tell you that by His stripes we are healed it's not about physical healing, it is. 

But here's the promise, we got a promise for healing right there. You know, a promise for healing but yet we're still sick, there's still disease, people die, you know. Why is that? Why is that? And then you go into Mark 16 and verses 17 and 18 Jesus talking makes a great promise here and He says, “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink any…” deadly, “...anything deadly, it will by no mean no means hurt them; they'll lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” So here are two promises about healing: one that we are healed and two that will lay hands on the sick and they shall be healed, and it doesn’t say they might be healed, it says they shall be healed. And those are incredible promises, but why does it not always happen? And that's a tough one. That's a tough one to answer. We're going to explore that, okay? 

I like this promise, Jesus said in John 10:10, you know, this scripture’s a very famous scripture. The thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they might have life, and they would have it more abundantly.” So there's a promise of abundant life, abundance in our life, okay? Uh, God promises in Deuteronomy 28:6, “Blessed shall you be when you come in, blessed shall you be when you go out,” okay? That's– I like to be blessed, don't you? Especially coming in and going out, that means all the time, right? Um Psalms 91:10, “No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;” that's a great promise, no evil, no plagues, okay? Um, Psalms 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” okay, we get afflicted. You’ve been afflicted, I've been afflicted, I've been afflicted a lot, how about you? Me too. But, the Lord delivers Him out of them all. So yeah, we get afflicted, but we get delivered out of all our afflictions. Actually, I've experienced that deliverance many times have you not? Um, and I like this one, you've ever been down and out, depressed, sad, broken, traumatized, whatever? You've got Psalms 34:18, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” Near to the brokenhearted. 

So we have these incredible promises of God and God loves us unconditionally and God cannot lie. I mean, He is the truth, I mean, He is– Jesus said, “I am the truth…” not like, you know, He didn't say, “I don't lie,” He said, that's– “I can't lie because I am the truth.” God is true and His word is true. And I want to give you my take on it, this is just my suggestion on how to activate the promises of God. I'm going to give you some tips on this. Now, I cannot promise you that every– if you do everything I say no matter what disease you have you will automatically be healed, okay? I have seen many people healed supernaturally, okay? I– I've seen cancer healed, I saw a broken bone healed in Guatemala, uh, Memphis, Tenn– South Memphis over on South Third Street. I saw a blind eye healed, okay? A blind eye healed. Um, my father was miraculously healed of seven cancerous invasive tumors of cancer, okay? I– you know, I, I, I've seen that, you know, I, I've seen that. I was healed, um, I was diagnosed with Charcot Marie Tooth disease. And just saying those words, you're probably wondering what the heck is Charcot Marie Tooth disease. Well, look it up if you want to look it up: Charcot, c h a r c o t- Marie Tooth. It’s the name of two French scientists who discovered the disease. It's a form of muscular dystrophy. They told me I would never walk again. I'm still walking. That, that, that was– that diagnosis was probably 30, 40 years ago. And so the point is, we do serve a miracle-working God. 

This is my take on these promises of God. Um, I, I like, I like this one, um, “They will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” So when I– I'm going to talk about activating a promise. So when I pray for someone and I lay hands on them, I will say something like this, of course, I'm trying to be led by the Holy Spirit. I'll lay hands on, you know, Johnny here. “Lord, I thank you for Johnny. I thank you, Father, and uh, Johnny says his stomach is hurting him. Father, I thank you that your word says in the gospel of Mark that I'll lay hands on the sick and they will recover. Father, Johnny is sick and you promised in your word that he will recover if I lay my hands on him. And so Father, now in the name of Jesus Christ, I take authority over this disease, I take authority over this illness and I command it to leave Johnny's body right now in Jesus’ name.” Now, what I did was several things. First off, I reminded God of His promise I said, “God, this is what you said,” so our– God knows His promise but by faith, I'm saying, “God, I believe in your promise. I'm reminding you, I'm reminding myself,” and I'm speaking it out, “this is what you promise.” And so see, faith is a really critical thing here because without faith it's impossible to please God. Remember, we're saved by faith, justified by faith, redeemed by faith. 

Now, don't get legalistic about it but what I'm saying is that I remind God of His promise. I speak His promise out loud and I petition God about this promise but then I do something different and if you know me, you've heard me teach this for years. There's two types of things that we do. We petition God, that means we ask God for things, but then we also take authority that He has given us. Well, He said I…you, we Christians will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, so that's an action thing. So one thing I have to do to make this promise in Mark 16 manifest is lay hands and command the disease to leave. He said I would lay hands on the sick, okay? He said, and, and also in Luke, He said, “I've given you authority over snakes and scorpions and all the works of the enemy.” So I take and use the authority He has given me which comes through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within me. So I remind God of His promise, I speak His promise out loud and then I activate his promise by taking the authority that's been given me, okay? 

Now let's look at um, you know let's look at, let's say uh, that, that's that's for healing, okay? How about abundant life? You know, you're struggling, you're living paycheck to paycheck and, and you're just barely making it and you're depressed, you're sad, you got relationship issues, all kinds of issues. You know, abundance is not always just about money, folks. My prayer and my, my conversation with God goes something like this, “Lord you promised in the Gospel of John that you have come, that Jesus came to give me life and give me life more abundantly. So Father, I thank you, I thank you.” Now here, this is a faith statement, remember. Now, faith pleases God, faith moves the hand of God. “So Lord, I thank you that Jesus has given me abundant life. I thank you, Father, that I have that abundant life now. I receive the abundant life now. I thank you, Father, I thank you for it.” Now, believing the promise and thanking God for the promise, even if you are not seeing it. Now remember in the book of Hebrews it says, “Faith is the substance of things not seen.” So an attitude of gratitude, thanking God for His promise, thanking God for the manifestation of His promise in your life before you see it with your natural eyes is a fantastic way to activate the promises of God. 

Now be careful, I don't want you to think I'm giving you a magic formula, I'm not– I'm trying to speak biblical principles here to you, and there is a biblical principle about without faith it’s impossible to please God. And you see examples of faith moving the hand of God throughout scripture. So I'm not trying to give you a, you know, a system, I'm trying to teach you a principle that in order for the promises of God to be activated in your life, you have to believe them, speak them, and act upon them. Let me say that again. Believe the promise, speak the promise, and act on the promise and that will cause the promise to manifest. Now, I can't promise you 100% of the time everything God says in the word is going to happen to you immediately. You know, sometimes healing takes a while and sometimes you know…I guess I’ll give you something tough. Something tough. I, I believe that sometimes God's healing comes after death because then there is eternal life and no more pain and suffering, but I do believe it is God's will to heal the sick. Jesus healed the sick everywhere He went. They've given us authority to heal the sick and He says by His stripes we are healed. 

So another thing I do when I'm dealing with, with illness, I said– I say, “Lord, your word says that by His stripes we are healed.” So I'm, I'm– just, just use my imaginary guy named Johnny again, “Lord, your word says that by His stripes we are healed, so, Lord, that means that by the stripes on the back of Jesus, Johnny is healed. Lord, I thank you for your word which cannot return void. I thank you for this promise. I thank you, Father, for Johnny's healing, right now in Jesus' name, Father.” And this works really well. It also works very well for you when you are sick, you just simply say, “Lord, I thank you that your word says, your promise says that by His stripes I am healed, by His stripes I am healed, by His stripes I am healed. Lord, I receive your healing. Lord, I thank you for your healing and I receive it. I thank you and I receive it.” You're speaking faith, you're acting on faith, you're believing with your words and you're proclaiming it out and you're speaking even to your body. Your body is hearing what you said and, and, the disease will leave. Now, let's be real here. I have not seen 100% of the time everybody I prayed for, um, and everybody who does this automatically get healed, but I've seen a lot of people get healed, a lot of people get healed. And if anybody tells you there's a perfect formula where you'll get healed automatically every time, I've never seen that and I– I've, I've been around some very powerful healing evangelists and seeing some incredible miraculous things, um, I've even seen a woman raised from the dead. I've seen some stuff, folks, and I've seen some things I can't explain that seem like nothing happened. But I know, I know that I know I am going to continue to speak the promises of God out loud, remind God continually of His promises, and do my part and act on His promises…and act on His promises. 

You know, maybe this seems like it just– you just get– something bad keeps happening to you, you can't figure out why. Well, “Lord, you said in Psalms 91:10, ‘no evil shall befall you nor shall any plague come near your dwelling,’ so Father, your word says that no evil shall befall me and no plague will be– come near my house. So, Father, I rebuke this evil because you, you gave me, you gave me this promise. So, Father, I stand on your promise.” Now, see, that's, that's speaking the promise, thanking God for the promise, and I act on the promise by rebuking the evil out of my life and out of my house, amen. Amen. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, God delivers them out of them all. Well, you're just afflicted. Things are just not going well, say, “Lord, I've got a promise here that says you deliver us from affliction, so, Father, I thank you for delivering me from this affliction.” So the key to it is speaking. Remind God of His promise, speak His promise out loud, thank God for His promise and act on His promise and you will see these promises begin to manifest more and more and more. 

Again, I love the one, uh, in Galatians where Paul wrote that uh, that Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become the curse for us. And so I use that a lot because in Deuteronomy 28 it describes many types of curses. Now, why would you want to even look at a curse at all? Period. Why would you even focus on that? Well, you might not want to focus on it but you might want to look at it and I'll tell you why, because in Deuteronomy 28 the first, oh, let's see, 12, 13, 14, first 14 verses talk about the blessings, okay, of obedience to God. And then you have curses for disobedience starting in Deuteronomy 28, verse 15, all these curses. And it talks about cursed in the city, cursed in the country, your kneading bowl, your basket, the fruit of your body, the produce of your hand, cursed going in, cursed going out, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But these curses have been taken upon Jesus. Jesus took these curses to the cross. And so all these curses in Deuteronomy are things that do not belong to me, so if I start experiencing one of these curses, it said uh, curse, uh– the Lord will cause confusion, rebuke everything that your hand is doing, okay? Uh, it makes plagues come upon you, fever, consumption, um, mildew - I didn't know mildew was even in there - um, all kinds of diseases…um, defeats. And so when you see these things happen, you go, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, those are curses, Jesus took the curse. So, Lord, I thank you that Jesus has redeemed me from every curse listed in Deuteronomy 28. And so, Father, if I've been redeemed from every curse of Deuteronomy 28, Lord, that means I have the blessings and I'm blessed coming in, blessed going out, I'm the head, I'm not the tail, above and not beneath. Thank you, Lord,” because Jesus redeemed you from the curses. So again, I remind God of His promise. I thank God that His promise is happening for me. Even if I don't see it, I go ahead and I thank Him for it. That's faith, folks, that's faith, that's a critical element here. And then I act upon it, amen. I act upon it. 

And so as you can see, there are ways to…things we can do with the promises of God. Read them meditate on them. Speak them out loud over them, you know, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. The more you speak these promises out, the more you will believe these promises. Faith comes by hearing and the more you speak them out, remind God, and pray over them and take authority with them, and thank God for them, the more you will see them manifest in your life, amen. Amen. Okay, let's pray. “Heavenly Father, again, I thank you, Father, for your promises. Your promises, as your word says, are yes and amen. And Lord, I thank you for who you are. I thank you for the many gifts and promises and blessings you have given us. And Lord, for anyone here, Father, who's just struggling, Father, with disease or with any type of curse or plague, Father, I thank you for your promises that you have redeemed them from the curse of the law, that by His stripes they are healed, Father, and that you've given us authority over all the works of the enemy. So Father, in the name of Jesus Christ I stand in faith and I thank you, Father, for everyone listening to the show. I thank you, Father, that they're healed I thank you, Father, they are delivered. I thank you, Father, that they have the prosperity that you have given them, abundant life, Father. I thank you for your promises, Father, I thank you that they're manifesting now, Father, for everyone listening to this show, Father. In Jesus’ name. So Lord, touch everyone who's downloaded and hearing my voice, Father, with your Holy Spirit. I thank you, Father, for the many promises. Now, Father, whatever promise someone needs, bring the scripture to their mind right now, in the name of Jesus Christ bring this scripture. I ask you to bring the scripture to their mind and, Father, let us stand– meditate, and thank you for your promises. Lord, you are a promise keeper, as the song says, and a miracle worker. We receive our promises now. We receive your promises now. And we thank you, Father, for faith, we thank you, Father, for who you are. And Lord, I just ask again a special blessing, healing, and freedom and abundance for everyone listening to Self Talk. So Lord, we praise you, we honor you, we thank you. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen, amen. Folks, thanks again for listening. I pray this show has been a blessing to you, amen. God bless you.

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Well, folks, that just completed episode 180. Can you believe it? 180 episodes of this podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I pray that this show has been a blessing and that's all I'm trying to do is just be a blessing and share the word of God with you. Uh, I thank you again for being a part of this. You know, a couple of things as a reminder, um, if you'd like to donate to help us continue the show, I would appreciate that very much. The best way is to go to our college website, icmcollege.org/donate, and that's a– we're a 501c3, that's a tax-deductible donation. We use that…your donations for the show and also for scholarships. Um, if you like a copy of my new book, it's called The Call: God Called, You Answered, This is What You Need to Know. Uh, I am sending out autographed copies, sign copies, um, and hope– sometimes I get prophetic words that I put in the book to them. The book is a minimum of $15. What I'm asking people to do is do CashApp. You can make a donation of $15, you know, to the– through the PayPal. Don't forget to give me your address or you can make a donation to CashApp which um, my cash app account is um, $drrayself. Dollar sign, d r r a y s e l f, okay? Minimum $15, my new book. And I pray again that this show has been a blessing to you. Please um, go to the website for the show, icmcollege.org/selfttalk, and um, you know, share this with people. Download it, subscribe, share, help us– help us spread the message, that's all. I really appreciate you, thank you so much for being a part of Self Talk. This is Dr. Ray Self. Goodbye and God bless.