Exposing Your Scheme

Hello, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. Thank you so much for being with me today. Today I'm going to go back into the topic of schemes of the enemy. There is a scheme against you and this scheme is perpetrated by the devil. The devil wants to hurt you, he wants to keep you from God's purpose in your life and knowledge of this scheme is critical for you. It's critical for your family, it's critical for your happiness. I want to talk about this. I'm not trying to give the devil any credit but I am saying he is alive and he is well. And the Apostle Paul said we are not to be ignorant of his scheme so let's talk about that and I will show you even more how to get free. Thank you for being with me today. This is Dr. Ray Self.

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Okay, first things first. Thanks again for being with me today, let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for each person listening to this show. I thank you, Father, that you said in your word we should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. You told us, Father, to put on the full armor of God so we can stand firm against the schemes of the enemy. So Lord, teach us. Lord, I ask you to speak through me and ask you to touch the heart of each person listening so they'll be aware of Satan's plans, Father. And Lord, give me the wisdom to show each one, each one hearing my voice how to break this scheme on their life in Jesus name. Amen. 

This is a, a topic defeating and exposing the schemes of the enemy, I've talked about quite often because it's such an enormous problem, and, and knowledge of this and how to deal with this is critical; it is so so vital. I do not want to focus or give glory to Satan in any shape, form or fashion, but I want to deal with the problem. I don't want to ignore problems, I don't want to, to pretend like they're not there, Jesus did not do that. You see, in His ministry, if you read His ministry, He confronted the demonic quite often and He dealt with the demonic but He also taught about the kingdom of God, He healed the sick, He loved us, He died for us, He forgave us, He cleansed us, He redeemed us, He justified us, and all kinds of wonderful stuff. But He also dealt with Satan and Satan's plans; and he gave us authority and he says I've given you authority over snakes and scorpions and all the works of the enemy. 

But authority, unless you know what your authority is and act on your authority, it’s, it’s useless. And the Apostle Paul wrote a, a commandment that said, in Corinthians he said we are not to be ignorant of Satan, of Satan's schemes. Second Corinthians 2:11. Let's read it, this is from The New American Standard. Let's go back to verse 10. Second Corinthians 2:10. “Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive if,” if I, “if

indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” Most versions say we are not ignorant of his schemes. Paul is telling us do not be unaware of Satan's scheme.

Now, a scheme is a plan. A scheme is a strategy. It's an evil strategy and the devil uses strategies against God's people. And I've said this often and I'll say this again. Satan does not attack God directly. Satan is not going to get in the boxing match with God and go come on God, let's duke it out. He's not going to do that. Satan will attack God indirectly by attacking God's people and again, Satan is not interested in you, he is interested in what you will do, what you are called to do for God. So God has chosen in His sovereignty, which I I'm amazed, to build His kingdom and use us as His vessels, His instruments, His tools, His representatives, His ambassadors. And so you know a very famous scripture that before you were born God had a plan for you and Jeremiah says before you're in your mama's womb I knew you and I ordained you to something. So God had a plan for your life, or he has a plan for your life that was formed before you were. The plan is here, you were created to do this plan. You're created for his glory.

I'm doing a course right now with ICM called Created for His Glory. You are created for the glory of God and you, until you move into God's plan for your life, you're not going to be happy or satisfied. I wrote my book, there's links to order in the show notes, I wrote a book called Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land and it's my story. Satan schemed against me, so much of my life, trying to keep me away from God's purpose and plan that he had for me; and the scheme was, was really diabolical. He attacked my self-esteem. So much so that I didn't feel I would, I mattered. I didn't feel I was worthy, I didn't, I didn't just really feel rejected, I felt insignificant. I really believed- I remember in high school how other guys were qualified and other guys were successful other guys were, were popular other guys deserved but I didn't deserve. I was just Ray. I wasn't important, I wasn't- matter- I didn't matter, I didn't measure up. And this message that I felt as a young man repeated itself over and over and over through all kinds of amazing ways. Throughout my life, the message would come to me that Ray, you don't really matter. I would hear that message or feel that message or believe that message because of a teacher or maybe a coach or, or a friend or sometimes at church. It was like I had this sign on my back that said hey, ignore me. Please ignore me, I don't matter, what I think doesn't matter, what I say doesn't matter, what I believe doesn't matter. You matter and I will do anything I can to help you because you matter and I'll be your friend because you matter but I really don't matter. And I heard that and that that message would come to me through circumstances and through voices and through, and so many times the message would come to me not by what was done to me but through what was not done to me. What was not said.

Every boy growing up and girl growing up, we need the father's affirmation. We need someone, and hopefully our parents, that will just put their hand on us and say they're proud of us. “I love you, you can do it, you can go for it.” You know, “no matter what, I, you have my approval, you have my unconditional love.” Remember Jesus got this when Jesus was, was baptized and He came out of the water there was a voice from heaven, it was God who spoke to Jesus said “this is My son in whom I'm well pleased.” We all need this and so many people never got this. Now my parents were incredible people and I love them dearly. My mother was very ill when I was growing up and was unable to care for us much of the time. My father was uh, a traveling salesman. He was gone five or six days out of the week traveling, you know, for his job. He was a great provider, a man of integrity, but his tendency was to always tell me what I did wrong but never tell me what I did right. He never told me to go for it, I'm proud of you, you can do it, wow, you're amazing, you're, you're spectacular, I love you, what, what a guy. He just, I knew he loved me and he cared for me and he would instruct me by telling me, pointing out the mistakes, but he never put, he never, he never told me how proud he was of me and, and built my self-esteem. And I'm not blaming him, I'm sure this is the way he was raised too and he was doing the best he knew how to do but it affected me until I realized who I was in Christ, and God changed this but there was a scheme that was hatched.

Because I was lacking affirmation and lacking a revelation of my self-worth, Satan, this was a doorway to the devil to come in and constantly and operate his scheme, and his scheme was to make sure that no matter what happened to Ray Self, he was not going to matter or count; and I was, he was going to get that message across to me. I mean, I would be ignored when there was no way I could possibly be ignored. It was almost, I was walking through the world invisible. I'd be invisible in a classroom, I'd be invisible playing sports, and I was good in sports and I was, you know, I was athletic and I was smart. But my self-esteem was, you know, about as low, you know, how low can you go. That's how I, low my self-esteem was. What I didn't understand until later in life, that this was a demonic scheme against my life. It was a demonic scheme that I was not to be ignorant of.

In Ephesians 6:11, Paul said put on the full armor of God so you'll be able to stand against the schemes of the enemy. So Satan had a scheme. He had a plan and his plan was like this, I'm gonna do what I can to make sure that Rey never has the self-confidence and the God confidence in himself. I want to make sure that Rey never feels like he is an achiever. I'm going to make Ray feel beneath and, and not above, okay? I'm gonna make Ray feel like the tail and not the head and I'm going to use any method I can; circumstances, people, friends, strangers, whatever I can do to reinforce that message. And see, one day I realized through teaching and through revelation this was a plan of the devil and I became where I'm not ignorant of that anymore and I'm not going to put up with it anymore and I do not put up with that anymore, you know. I'm bought with the blood of Jesus Christ, I have authority, I have the anointing, I recognize the works of the devil, and I rebuke and renounce the works of the devil because I know who I am in Christ. I know my anointing, I know my call, I know my value, I know my worth and I refuse to accept that. 

You remember when Jesus went into the wilderness? The first thing Satan did was try to get Jesus to question His identity. He said to Jesus “if you be the son of God.” “if you be the son of God, turn these stones into bread.” Jesus didn't fall for it because Jesus knew who He was. He had the Father's affirmation. So Jesus was well prepared and I think Jesus was showing us- see in the temptation, Satan was using various schemes to try to invalidate or illegitimize Jesus. At one point he said “if you be the son of God, throw yourself down from this temple.” And Jesus of course, knew who He was. He also knew the word of God and was able, able to to stop it.

So a scheme is a plan and you know, I've done several shows on this but I still think there's so much, so much to be said of it. Last Saturday, I was very blessed to be teaching a class for our Spanish campus. Now as you know, I'm very blessed to be president of the International College of Ministry. We're primarily an online college but we also have uh, satellite campuses and I do have a campus, a Spanish-speaking church here in Orlando where I'm broadcasting from. And, I was teaching on exposing and defeating the schemes of the enemy and a young lady raised her hand and she said with an interpreter, she said Dr. Self, you taught me this seven years ago and I had a scheme against me of fear and anxiety and I'd suffered that my entire life. I realized that was a scheme of the enemy against my life. I was able to rebuke it and renounce it and get rid of it and I have not suffered that ever since. For seven years she was free. 

You see, these schemes are, are vicious; that is a plan. You must know the enemy's plans. Who would have guessed that, I don't know if you're an older listener, I hope you understand history because history is so critical. Do you know that Adolf Hitler in uh, nineteen- I think it was around 1936. Adolf Hitler, Adolf Hitler was the, one of the most evil men in History. Adolf Hitler murdered six million Jews- women and children and men, indiscriminate, put them in concentration camps and they would have them murdered. If he didn't use them as slave labor he would kill them. It did not matter, I mean, purely evil, the atrocities that he committed. Did you know- now he started the war, started- World War II with Adolf Hitler started, started in 1939 or 1940 when he invaded Poland around 1941 if I may have, maybe off one year, he invaded France. Eventually he invaded Russia. But in 1936, Adolf Hitler was on the cover of Time, Time Magazine as Time magazine's Man of the Year, that he hosted the Olympics. He was Man of the Year. They thought that Adolf Hitler was the guy who was restoring Germany to greatness. What we did not know, that Adolf Hitler was under the control of Satan and he had a scheme to take over the world and to rid the world of all Jews. There was a scheme.

See, Paul said we should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. Second Corinthians 2:11. If we had known what Hitler's scheme was, what the scheme of the devil was that he was using Adolf Hitler to do for him, we could have stopped it much earlier and saved millions of lives. Did we know that there was a scheme by some terrorist to fly planes into the World Trade Center? If we'd have been aware of that scheme, we could have stopped that, could we have not? If we'd have been aware of it. That's why we put on the full armor of God to resist the schemes of the enemy and we're not ignorant of his scheme. 

So I guess I guess you're getting my point. How do you know there's a scheme operating against you? Well, the way you know is it repeats itself. It's something that happens continually. I know this, this young lady that was testifying in class Saturday said that she suffered anxiety and fear almost every day of her life. It was it was a continual struggle. So let's look at some other schemes, and again, one of the ways to identify it is it's just consistent. The bible says no weapon, in Isaiah, “no weapon formed against you shall prosper.” Well, that's good. The second part of that verse is really good. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, so that's good but the first part of that verse is saying weapons have been formed against you; that's bad. Again, ultimately you'll get to victory, but you still have to have knowledge. Knowledge is power. If- Peter said God has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him, okay? So let's look at some other um, some other schemes. Some other schemes. So I want to go down a list here.

Now, one of the biggest schemes that's all over the world, that's everywhere, is the most common scheme, is called the spirit of illegitimacy. What is illegitimacy? It's a, a, I’ll read you some symptoms. Feeling incomplete, not measuring up, never quite satisfied, looking for happiness but never finding it. Feeling the need to prove yourself, prove your worth. Constant feelings of inadequacy or low self-esteem. Sometimes you have false coping mechanisms in place and people develop all kinds of false methods to cope with pain. Sometimes uh, with this spirit you may have a false self or false identity. You might be wearing a mask, you have persistent sadness. Sometimes people with this spirit, this scheme, this, this, go into addictions, escape methods, you know, drugs, alcohol, sex, overspending, workaholic, religious addiction can be addicted to religion, fantasies, all kinds of, all kinds of addictions. These are schemes of the spirit of illegitimacy. That's a scheme, illegitimacy. 

An- other schemes that you know we've, we've, I've taught, I've counseled, I've counseled this. I have counseled about schemes literally all over the eastern U.S, anywhere, everywhere from New York to New Orleans, um in churches, uh, to do conferences about this, seminars about this. I teach it online, we have courses online about this. As a matter of fact, you can audit courses. Please take advantage of that. If you go to, or just email me, drayself@gmail.com, I can show you how to audit courses. It's $35 a course. I have over 200 courses online. All kinds of Christian counseling courses, ministry courses, theology courses, prophetic courses that can change your life and you can audit any of these courses for 35 dollars. All you need is you make a $35 donation to our scholarship fund which we use to help ministers in need. $35 donation, I send you a username and a password, voila, you've got the course. You need the username and a password, that's all you need. A donation, username and a password and you can open up courses. It will rea- and it will help us too.

So other common schemes are hopelessness. Continually feeling your life is beyond hope and that of course, ties into depression. I don't matter, I told you about that one, I don't matter. Feeling invisible, uh, abandonment. I actually have known people that's, every time they turn around somebody's abandoning them. Constant abandonment, um, and it seems like Satan will always have people abandon you. Worthlessness can be a scheme, uh, performance identity- people who base their self-worth on their ability to perform. I, I know people, I have some students that if they don't make an A plus and they make a B on an assignment, their self-worth goes right down the tube. Uh, these people tend to be man-pleasers, performance oriented, and value only comes from achievement. You know folks, we’re saved by grace not by works, not by, let me say again, not by our works. It's the grace of God. So if value comes from achievement, you're going to live on a roller coaster because when you're achieving, you've got value and when you're not achieving, you feel worthless. A lot of athletes struggle with that.

Immorality, continual uh, shame, uh, manipulation, seduction, soul ties. Fear. Fear can be a scheme and usually that comes in through trauma. Uh, people with this, with the spirit of fear or the scheme of fear, they're easily afraid. They have fear of the future, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of intimacy, fear of the dark, fear the demonic, you get it, they're fear, they're fearful; my mother suffered this scheme. Idolatry, and idolatry can be a scheme. That's where you find you're worth in outward things. You find your worth in objects, the material word. The material world is your worth. Your money, your cars, your looks, blah, blah, blah. Idolatry can be a scheme of the enemy. 

Narcissism, which is a real common word nowadays, it’s a catchphrase in counseling, it's all over the place. But narcissism is a scheme of extreme self-centeredness. So much so that the narcissist person suffering this scheme cannot even see the needs and worth of other people. All they can see is themselves. It's a- have you ever been around a narcissist or live with a narcissist? It's tough, it's really tough. But um, usually it’s triggered by a history of abusive relationships or trauma, um, and the narcissist cannot really, cannot relate to the needs of other people at all unless it's about them.

There's a scheme of rebellion. People with this scheme can be prideful, arrogant, they may get into occultic practices, they're disobedient, they have a lot of issues with authority. Other schemes I've seen: religious spirit. This is the Pharisee type of spirit, you know, this is, I'm making this about, this, I'm recording this the week before Easter. The Pharisees who had this religious spirit were finding everything possibly they could wrong with Jesus so they could kill Him and crucify Him. It's a strict, merciless, rule-driven, self-righteous spirit and it's usually caused by false doctrine or a history of abuse. People with a religious spirit are rule-oriented, they can be controllers, and something about controllers is, controllers, controlling is an addiction because trying to control other people keeps the focus off of you. I'll leave it at that. Some people just have an addictive personality which can be a scheme of the enemy. They're just prone to addictions, alcohol, drugs, sex, other life-controlling substances. 

So there's a lot of things that can be, that can cause or can be labeled as schemes but for you, what is the persistent issue that seems to have haunted you, worked, that you, worked against you, tugged at you? Um, unworthiness is really a big one. So many people I've seen with this spirit of unworthiness, they hide it very well but what happens is when they become successful or that something good happens to them, they sabotage it because underneath the surface they do not feel worthy of it. So they'll do something to sabotage good things- they'll sabotage healthy relationships, they'll sabotage a job promotion, they'll sabotage a lot of good things in their life that are given to them or come their way. They sabotage it eventually because they do not feel worthy of it. 

So what do you do first off, just, you got to be aware, okay? Know this too, know this too: we are adopted by God. The key thing to defeating a scheme first off, is you pray. Let the Holy Spirit reveal to you what it is. You can probably figure it out by just looking at the same persistent feeling you've had as long as you can remember, but when you get the revelation, first off know you have authority over Satan. You submit to God, resist the devil, he'll flee from you. You have to submit to God and His word and you have to be aware of what He's doing and say no, no longer. I am, I am saved, I'm under the blood, authority of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is my savior. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, by the name above all names. By the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke this scheme, I refuse to accept it. No more. Get out of my life, you will not touch me anymore. This scheme is broken. Know that you are who you are. 

Romans 8:17 “and if children, then heirs - heirs of God”. Paul is telling us we are heirs of God; joint heirs with Christ. That's huge! You're a joint heir with Jesus Christ. We are children of God, heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus, with Christ. Paul tells us, Peter tells us we're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. This is who we are. We have been adopted, we have been adopted; and I love this scripture in Ephesians, “and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in heavenly places.” We are seated- have you ever been to a wedding and they have a seat of honor, you know, you have, the Bride and the Groom and at that head table. Right to the right of the, of the Bride would be the uh, the Maid of Honor, uh, to the, to the right sitting right next to the groom would be the Man of Honor, um, Best Man, and we're seated in heaven with Jesus right on his right hand. You have God on His throne, Jesus sitting next to Him, and your position is right next to Jesus- that's your position. And then the scripture says in Galatians we have been adopted. Adopted. We are adopted. That means we have been adopted into the family of God, as a child of God. Um, it says in Galatians 4:6 “because you are sons He's sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son,” you're an adopted son, “and if a son, an heir of God”, an heir through God. Romans 8:15 “you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons”. Adoption. Now what's really cool about adoption- in our culture adoption is a little bit of a negative thing; well, you're adopted, you know, that you, your parents didn't want you, blah, blah, blah. You know, it's really just awful, it's not true. In the Greek culture that this was written to, a child, a natural born child could be disowned by their parents but an adop- hear me - an adopted child could never be disowned; an adopted child cannot be disowned. So when Paul uses the imagery of adoption, he's telling us a great thing. It's a high honor. It's, it's actually scripturally, it's a higher, higher honor to be adopted by God to be born naturally as His son if that makes sense. 

So if you know who you are in Christ; because, see, Jesus knew who He was. That helps you resist the enemy because the enemy wants to get your mind believing his lie. Remember, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, so when you hear a lie enough, you start to believe it. It comes by hearing but when you hear the truth enough, you'll start to believe that so we have to keep feeding ourselves with the truth. Jesus said in John 15:15 I- “No longer do I call you slaves, for a slave does not know what his master is doing; I have called you friends,” you're a friend of Christ, a heir of God, a child of God, an adopted son of God who has the Holy Spirit in- you understand you have the Holy Spirit in you? Do you think there's any contest at all between the Holy Spirit and Satan? You put the Holy Spirit into Satan in a boxing ring, who's going to win? Satan won't last three seconds. You have the Spirit of God in you. But so many Christians perish for a lack of knowledge as the prophet Hosea said when, you know, who you are you know, the power that’s within you. You understand the word of God, you will resist and rebuke the scheme of the enemy and I encourage you to do that today. Don't let this scheme continue against you, your spouse or your children. It's critical for the body of Christ, it's critical for your future, it's critical for the kingdom of God. Amen, amen, amen, thank you Jesus. A little preachy tonight but it's all good.

Lord, I thank you, Father, that we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes. I thank you for each one listening to us today, Father, and I thank you, Father, that we can break these schemes by the authority of Jesus Christ. And Father, and listening to me, and as I'm praying, Father, we uh, forgive anyone- Father, I ask you to, we for ask you to forgive us. And Father, we forgive those that have hurt us. We forgive anyone that sinned against us, Father. And, and listen to me folks, as I'm praying, one key thing to break the scheme of the enemy is make sure you're not harboring unforgiveness. If you need to forgive someone, it's critical that you will do that, okay? All right, so if you're doing anything sinful that you need to stop, the Holy Spirit will show it to you. Just say Lord, I repent from that. Forgive me. If we confess our sins He does what? He forgives us and cleanses us of all unrighteousness. Then you're ready. You, you have forgiven, you have been forgiven, and now you're ready to break every curse spoken against you; to break every scheme of the enemy and to live in absolute freedom; and you take authority and say no more. I will not receive. Thank you, Father, who the Son sets free is free indeed and by the name of Jesus Christ, I renounce this scheme of illegitimacy, worthlessness, fear, abandonment, anxiety, whatever it is, I renounce it. I will not accept it anymore. I thank you, Lord, that I am free in Jesus' name. Amen.

That's a lot tonight. Thank you for listening to me. You know, I appreciate it. Thank you so much and I just say God bless you. It's been a privilege.

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Hey, this is Dr. Ray Self again. Thank you so much for listening. I do not, I mean, I'm honored. I'm honored for everyone who downloads this. I still need your help though. If you can go to the podcast website, icmcollege.org/selftalk. Now the links are in the show notes, there you can subscribe, give me a review, also there's a store there. I've got my two books in there, also the several courses you can purchase that I really think you would enjoy. They're pretty cool courses. One is uh, School of the Prophets, how to activate and impart your prophetic gift, college course on that. Foundations of Spiritual Warfare, uh, Counseling Victims to Freedom. Uh, then there’s defeating- I mean, that's, that's a serious great Christian counseling course, um, the warfare course, my book Hear His Voice, be His Voice, Redeeming Your Past, all that's on uh, the podcast or my podcast webpage. 

There you can also donate. It'd really be great to help us with our scholarship plan. You know, we give out a lot of free education. I'm supporting 42 pastors, I'm helping them get their college degrees. 42 Pastors in India, I have pastors, evangelists, church leaders throughout America that are coming to ICM, some of them for half price, some of them are paying virtually nothing. We're giving away thousands of dollars in education. My heart is very simple: if someone wants to get equipped for their calling of God and they honestly want to enroll in our school but they're struggling financially, I will always make a way for them. I'll never let money be an object; but it takes money for us to do that. That's our scholarship fund and you can, that's uh, that's on the podcast webpage and so if- there's a link that says help us give scholarships, all this kind of stuff would really, really help us. Another thing too, uh, if you got a topic suggestion, email me at drayself@gmail.com. The link’s in there, d-r-r-a-y-s-e-l-f @gmail.com and you know, tell me, tell me your ideas. We have another store at icmcollege.org/merchandise. Now, this is a store that has a bunch of our college products. We've got hoodies, we've got t-shirts, we have sweatshirts, we have coffee cups, we have books, we have all kinds of stuff in, in that particular store. Anyway, that’s all my little final promo material. Main thing is, I love you, thank you so much for listening to me and uh, and listening to all of my excitement. I'm just grateful and uh, this is Dr. Ray Self. Thank you one more time for listening to Self Talk with me.