Hindering Spirits

Narrator: Welcome to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self, the place where you can get real answers to tough questions. Jesus promised you abundant life but poor choices and dark forces stand in your way. It is time to learn how to overcome the obstacles that keep you out of your promised land. Knowledge of God will pave the path for you to walk in His blessing.

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Dr. Ray: Hello and welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. I want to talk to you about the wind and the Spirit. There;s a really famous scripture where Jesus uh, says something, you know, profound - a little bit confusing to some people, but He said, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but you do no know where it comes from or where it is going, so with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” And to me, there’s a lot you can make out of this scripture but the Holy Spirit is moving. The Spirit of God moves like the wind…He’s not stationary. The Spirit of God is not a statue or an object or a building, it’s, it’s a person and this person is on the move and this person wants us to be in sync with Him. This person of God, the Holy Spirit, wants us to flow with Him. He wants us to go the same direction He’s going. When Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice and they follow Me,” that means they go in the direction I’m going. Well, since we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, if you believe and you’re saved, you’re filled with the Spirit, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, it is our job to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. So much so that the Apostle Paul wrote in the book of Romans that those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God which means we all have an obligation to be led by the Spirit. But the Spirit moves like the wind. 

I want to tell you a short story which is very significant in my life. Now folks, I love boats, especially sailboats. So, many years ago, maybe…I’m guessing maybe 20 years ago, I was on a 33-foot sailboat, a beautiful sailboat that a friend of mine owned and we were taking a river…uh, a river sail. We were sailing on the Tennessee River and the Tennessee River, if you're not familiar with, is actually a series of TVA lakes. The particular lake we were on is over 55 miles long and we were sailing the length of this lake to get– to go through a lock and get to another lake. Actually, the lake was called Pickwick Lake and we were going to a lake called Wilson Lake. But as we were sailing, the Lord began to talk to me about the wind and the Spirit. Now, when you sail, it’s very important that you set your sails correctly. Now the boat has two sales, a headsail and a mainsail - that’s the– headsail’s the small triangular sail on the front toward the front of the boat, then there’s the mainsail which is a large triangular sail toward the back of the boat or from mid-ship to the stern of the boat. And so depending on the direction and the velocity of the wind, that is how you set your sails and it also determines the direction you sail. When your sails are set correctly, okay, with the direction of the wind, the boat actually sails very smoothly and accelerates and it moves pretty quick for, for a sailboat. When your sails are set incorrectly, they’re just out of alignment so to speak. A very simple way to put it: the boat slows down and sometimes the boat’ll even begin to shake and the boat could actually stop. The wind is constantly changing, especially on a river. The wind velocity changes, the wind direction changes. So every time the wind changes when you’re sailing a sailboat - and if you’re a sailor you know what I’m talking about here, I’m trying not to get too technical - but every time the wind changes direction, you must change– either turn the direction of your boat or reset the direction in the angle of your sails if you’re going to be sailing properly and you want to get to your destination.

And so the Lord was showing me that the Holy Spirit flows like the wind. And just as on a sailboat, you continually make adjustments. See, when you’re sailing, it’s not just you set your sails and you know, you sailors know what I’m talking about, you don’t set your sails or prop your feet up, you’re constantly making adjustments because the wind is constantly changing. That is life in the Spirit, folks, it’s a constant series of adjustments. The Holy Spirit is moving, the Holy Spirit is blowing like the wind and we have to make adjustments. So we made adjustments to the direction and velocity of the wind for this trip which is about 55 miles long, okay? And we got there. As a matter of fact, it was interesting, I remember there were several other people in sailboats on the same journey, there was a group of us and a number of the guys were actually, had their motors on and were motoring, and we actually got there before the guys who were motoring…because we were in tune with the wind and the guy I was sailing with was much like me, he’s, you know, I’ve been sailing for many years, knew what I was doing, we were very careful to continually adjust our sailboat to whatever the wind was doing. And we made it to our destination very quickly.

Hear me, folks, that’s life in the Spirit. When you continually adjust your life, your thoughts, your actions, your emotions to the direction the Holy Spirit is moving, you will get there efficiently and smoothly and rapidly. Very interesting, on a sailboat, when you, your sails are too loose or not set correctly, many times the sails will begin to shake and vibrate, this is known as luffing, okay, in the sailing term. This term luffing is not really a good thing because when the sales begin to luff or, or shake, the sails will actually act like a flag fluttering in the wind. The boat will slow down, stop, and can even literally start backing up. When we are not adjusted and not in the proper alignment with the movement of the Holy Spirit, our progress can stop, our progress can become more difficult, and we can even begin to back up and lose ground, are you hearing me? Lose ground.

See, the wind and the Spirit to me is about the movement of the Holy Spirit and it’s about as Christians how we have to learn and to tune ourselves to the Holy Spirit. It is a skill to know what the Holy Spirit is doing. I– I call it tuning in. Now, most of the time in life and in my life I’m just– I’m busy, I'm distracted, I’m doing something to keep my mind occupied. In the midst of that the Holy Spirit is trying to direct me, influence me in various different ways but I ignore Him. And then I usually end up getting frustrated or things are not working out so well because I’m, I’m out of sync with the Holy Spirit. but when you’re living a Spirit led life, what happens is life becomes easier, the promise that Jesus made where He said, “My yoke is easy, My burden is light,” that promise starts to manifest in your life, and that’s what life in the Holy Spirit is about. 

Another interesting thing about sailing…there’s a term called bear away, and sometimes when the wind blows too hard you literally have to turn the boat and go the direction the wind is going because resisting the wind, trying to sail against the wind is almost impossible, can even be dangerous. Uh, many times in storms out at sea the old sailing vessels would bear away and run with the wind as long as they could, okay? Because the wind was blowing very strongly and to try to resist it– they’d sail at an angle toward it by the way, you can sail at angles towards the wind with a sailboat, up to 45 degrees toward the wind, but the sailors would, would…they would call it bearing away and they would sail down wind until the storm was over. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is moving so strongly, you must go direct– you have to bear away and literally turn your life in the direction that the wind is blowing because to try to face it and go against the wind is almost impossible. It’s like going upstream in a very strong current, you cannot do it. This is like life in the Spirit.

So the question is, every day, is what is the Holy Spirit doing? How do I know the direction the Holy Spirit is moving? Am I in tune with the Holy Spirit? I’m going to talk about this a little bit more and in part two. It is critical. The benefits of being in tune with the Holy Spirit are so many. You have peace, your life flows easier, you’re more productive, you sleep better, uh, you’re doing what God’s called you to do, it’s actually a form of obedience, being led and flowing with the Holy Spirit. 

What gets in the way so much with us is our plans, our budget, our traditions, our methods, our ability, and our desire to be in control. Instead of letting God be in control, we want to be in control– here’s what scares people about the Holy Spirit, is the Holy Spirit will lead you in ways that are unfamiliar to you. The Holy Spirit will lead you in ways or paths that you would not have thought of, the Holy Spirit may even make you uncomfortable, but you have to believe and trust that God knows what’s best for you and when you flow with the Holy Spirit, you’re actually doing what is best for you, even if your mind is going, wow, this doesn’t make sense, your brain is going, gosh, I don’t know if I would– I would have planned it this way. Maybe you didn’t, okay, but the Holy Spirit has something better for you. I’ll tell you a really cool story. On my honeymoon with my beautiful wife Christy, I’ll never forget this, okay. So we decided to go to Anna Maria Island, Florida. It’s a beautiful island on the Gulf Coast just south of Tampa, it’s just a gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous place, Anna Maria Island. But we also made a very bold decision. We decided we would go to the island and we would literally just pray and ask the Holy Spirit where we should stay. Now I know this– you know, most people say, “you didn’t have reservations for your honeymoon?” No, I, I really didn’t, I really felt a leading of the Holy Spirit I would go to the island and He would show me the w– the place to stay. So we drove out and Christy was trusting me with this which was pretty amazing. So we drove out on Anna Maria Island, okay? I get on the island and I pull over to the side of the road, and I begin to pray, “Lord, just show me where you want us to stay for our honeymoon.” And all of a sudden, I got this impression I was to drive straight down this road, take a right turn - the road had a sharp right turn - and the place that we were to stay was going to be on our left. So, I said, “Christy, I think I’m supposed to go up here, turn to the right, the place is going to be on the left.” So I drove, made my little right turn, I’m going down the beautiful two-lane road on this Anna Maria Island, and all of a sudden I pulled over, I saw a sign that said, I think this is what the Lord– “this is the place the Lord is telling us to stay.” It was this beautiful bed and breakfast called Harrington House, it’s an historic bed and breakfast. And when I…I saw the sign, I pulled into the parking lot, all of a sudden my wife goes, “Aah! Oh, oh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” It turns out, without me knowing anything, that Harrington House was the place that my wife had always dreamed of staying. She knew of this place and had never stayed there but she had always dreamed of staying at Harrington House on Anna Maria Island, it was just truly by the Holy Spirit. And I know it’s kind of a silly example. Many times the Holy Spirit’s leading you in the things that are critical, I mean, very, very important. It could even be life and death, success or failure.

Being led by the Holy Spirit is not optional, but what I wanted to talk to you about - the wind and the Spirit - is the direction of the Holy Spirit. It takes adjustments. We have to continually fine-tune ourselves and train ourselves how to be and flow with the Holy Spirit. And there’s a skill to that and there’s practice, it’s practice, in a way, it’s like learning a new language. But being able to sense the Holy Spirit, being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, listening to the Holy Spirit, and obeying the Holy Spirit is a learned skill. Now me, I’m a sensitive guy, I’m very, I’m very prophetic, um, it’s pretty easy for me to– and I don’t always do it perfectly, obviously, nobody does, but it’s pretty easy for me to get a sense of what the Holy Spirit is trying to say or do. Many people, especially - hear me carefully - especially people who are very um, oh, I call them brainiacs, okay, logical, systematic thinking people. It’s, it’s mathematical minds. Sometimes those minds struggle a little more difficult. You know, I– I’ve always been led moe by my heart and some people it just– everything is logical, practical, you know, engineers, scientists, um, these type of people…um…architects, sometimes in some certain– teachers sometimes struggle with being– uh, hearing and being in tune with the Holy Spirit but doesn’t excuse them, don’t excuse any of us. It is a learned skill and we can do this. 

It’s actually…when we’re in tune with the Holy Spirit and going, speaking, acting, living in the direction of the Holy Spirit, we’re actually obeying God’s, we’re obeying God’s commandments. If you think about Jesus, He didn’t do anything except what the Father directed Him to do. And you know, Jesus was full of surprises, I mean, there were times He would heal people by putting His hand on them, there were times He would speak to them from a distance, there were times He would spit and put mud in their eyes, there were times He would draw on the ground, you never knew what He was going to do next and that’s because the Holy Spirit was continually directing Him. And He never failed. The Holy Spirit will never lead you into failure, ever, ever, ever. I think it’s critical for all Christians to train ourselves. Practice listening to the Holy Spirit, it’s not just…you know, we’ve talked a lot about hearing God’s voice but it’s more. It’s not just, uh, the Lord says, “Ray, turn left,” sometimes it’s an impression, it’s a gut feeling - what the world calls a gut feeling - it’s a sensation, it could be a picture, it’s sort of knowing something that you couldn’t know.

Another thing about the Holy Spirit is there’s a conviction when you’re doing it wrong. There’s a conviction when you’re going the wrong way, there’s a conviction when you’re making a mistake, there’s a conviction in your heart when you are, are messing up, doing something you shouldn’t do. I want to say this: there’s never condemnation or shame, the Holy Spirit always glorifies Jesus Christ, He will not bring condemnation or shame. He will convict you a-and encourage you to correct, okay? Conviction is different than condemnation. Jesus took condemnation and shame to the cross and the Holy Spirit’s not going to undo anything Jesus already accomplished. So Jesus took shame and condemnation, that’s why the bible says there’s no condemnation for those in Jesus Chris, Jesus Christ– for those in Jesus Christ, I got that out. however, Satan wan– constantly wants to put shame and condemnation back on us. Satan in his own awful way tries to invalidate the work of the cross. So, if you feel shame or condemnation, that’s not the Holy Spirit. If you feel conviction, that’s the Holy Spirit, a leading, that’s the Holy Spirit, a sense of– the Bible talks in Psalms they were led forth by peace. If you have peace, if you have peace in your heart, a beautiful picture, it feels like love, it’s something a loving father would say, that’s the Holy Spirit.

So, it’s– we’re– nobody’s perfectly led by the Holy Spirit, everybody gets off track, we all– we have too much flesh going on, we’re off track, we’re human beings. I think– thank you Jesus he’s got mercy on us, but the wind and the Spirit is like…as the wind blows, so the Holy Spirit is moving, and as the Holy Spirit continues to move, we must discern the direction the Holy Spirit is moving and make sure our life, our thoughts, our actions, our words, are in sync, in tune, and correctly aligned with what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing, in the direction He wants you to go. This is the wind and the Spirit. I hope this has been beneficial to you. Now what I want you to do this week is say, “Lord,” pray this little prayer, “Lord, help me to discern what the Holy Spirit is directing me to do.” And then during the week, practice. You know, maybe you get a sensation, a picture, a thought that comes out of nowhere that you’re suppose to do something or say something, well, do it and look at the results. And by doing that you’ll, you’ll learn what was of God and what is not of God. Make practical applications. Maybe you sense the Holy Spirit saying, you know, “I think I feel I’m supposed to call my friend Joe,” and so you pick up the phone and call Joe. Joe will say something like, “Oh, I can’t believe you called, this is such perfect timing,” you’ll know then that was the Holy Spirit talking to you. Just–in a way you want to maybe test what you’re sensing and hearing, okay? Try that during the week.

I’m Dr. Ray Self and this is Self Talk. I hope this has been a blessing to you. Please subscribe, um, give me a rating, I need a rating, you know, ratings on the podcast. You can email me, if you’ve got questions or comments, email me at drrrayself@gmail.com, d-r-r-a-y-s-e-l-f @gmail.com. You can put comments on Facebook, whatever, I love to hear from you, love your feedback, this is Dr. Ray Self, be sure and check out my website, icmcollege.org, that’s my college and I love it and I love you and I am grateful for you. God bless you.

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