How the Spirit of Illegitimacy Affects You

Hey, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, me, Dr. Ray Self. Thank you again for listening. This is actually episode 142, can you believe it? 142 episodes. I want to thank everyone who listens to the show for downloading. Please go to my website and subscribe, download, follow, rate, all that kind of stuff helps this show get out to more people and helps us to help people. What I want to do, I just want to help people. I want people to know about the freedom they can have in Christ, I want people to know how to defeat the schemes of the enemy, I want you to know how to be free and how to live in peace and how to be in your promised land doing the thing God created you to do and the place God created you to be. That's my heart, that's my purpose. Again, thank you for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. God bless you.

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Okay, let's get started. Dr. Ray Self here, with Self Talk. I want to read a scripture to you because it's key to what I'm talking about today and it's key for your life. So John the Baptist baptized Jesus, okay? And then it says in the next chapter, Matthew 4 beginning verse 1, it says “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He became hungry,” talking about Jesus. Verse 3, very key verse, “And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones become bread.’” Let's stop right there. There's a key phrase here, “‘If you are the Son of God,’” See, that's a question right there. What an interesting question, If you're the Son of God, prove it. And so the question is a typical thing that Jesus was attacked by, but what I'm saying is Satan attacked Jesus with a question mark. The attack to me is an attack of illegitimacy. He was trying to get Jesus to question His identity, question who He was. Now, just before that, Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist; then the Holy Spirit comes and descends upon Him. Then all of a sudden you have a voice from Heaven, who is God. He said, “This is My Son in whom I'm well pleased.” That is critical, that's the Father's affirmation. 

So Jesus was affirmed, but here comes Satan and he begins to question Him, hoping he can get Jesus to question Himself. “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.” In other words, prove it. Are you sure you're the Son of God? I mean, if you are– are you really the son of God? So a little bit later in the story, verse 6, “...and he said to Him if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall command his angels concerning you…’” So again, he asked Jesus a question. It's a question. You see, God is not about questions. God is faith. He is absolute, He is the truth. What the devil wants to do is have you question yourself, question your value, question your worth, question your legitimacy. This is the spirit I call the spirit of ill– legitimacy and it is a demonic scheme that causes people underneath it all to, to question their value, their worth, their security, their identity. 

Now you know, when you talk to most Christians and you say “Well, do you know who you are?” They will all say “Yeah, I'm a child of God. You know, I'm saved, I'm born again. But you see, there's this little voice underneath everything that, that wants you to question your worth. I mean, “Are you really called? Are you really saved? Can you really do this? Do you really matter? Do you measure up, as much as other people? Are you as important as other people? Are you a good pastor? Really? Can you really preach? You're, you didn't make it. You failed, you're not measuring up, you're not as good as–” all these questions. I've said this so many times that Satan loves to attack with the question mark and the reason he does that is because it is counter to Christ. You see, with God it's not a question, it's an absolute. God's an absolute, He's not a questionable God or a questionable truth, He's the absolute truth. But you see, with Satan, if he can get you to question then it gets you into doubting, and then when you get into doubting, you're not living by faith. And faith is the one thing that God requires but a question mark can undermine you in a very deep level. I cannot tell you how many pastors I've known who would tell me that before they got up to preaching Sunday morning, they had this little voice of doubt talking to them. “Do you really– are you– do you really measure up for this? Are you really worthy of this? Can you really, can you really do this?” 

I cannot tell you how many men I've known have been constantly hammered by the spirit that I call the spirit of illegitimacy. What, what are the evidences of it and how do you know if you're being attacked by this? It's a very, very common spirit. It is all over the place. I was hit by this spirit most of my life, it was a very extreme attack on me. So, so extreme that I began to question my worth, I mean, was I really– did I really even matter? Did I really even count? So much so that when I was a young man, I believed other people mattered but– or other people matter, I didn't matter, or other people matter and more important than me. I compared myself and I never measured up, I never measured up. That to me is part what I call the spirit of ill legitimacy, and you can see it in scripture in multiple, multiple places. You know, when Abraham um, married Sarah and they got impatient to have a baby, they decided to have a child by their by their servant Hagar. And so they have this actually illegitimate child which is part of the spirit of illegitimacy, Ishmael.

So what I want you to understand is you see, you can perish for a lack of knowledge. It's important to discern the works of the enemy. I don't like to focus on the enemy, I don't want to focus on Satan, but I want to deal with them and I want to discern when he is in operation. I see this spirit again with men. Men seem to have this built-in desire to prove themselves, to prove our worth. You see when you're being attacked by the spirit of illegitimacy, you may become competitive. You have to win to be valuable, you have to be successful to be valuable, you have to have a lot of money to be valuable, you have to be strong to be valuable, you have to have a high position to be valuable, you have to have good clothes, a nice car, all this sort of stuff to be valuable. That's, that's the world’s system and it's completely illegitimate. See, our value and our worth comes from the fact that God was willing to pay for our life with the life of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's legitimacy. But you see, if you're not living with the legitimacy of the blood of Jesus Christ, you are subject to the spirit of illegitimacy that makes you want to prove your worth, think in your mind that you're not as valuable as other people, you don't matter as other people. 

Think about the world today. Who do we value in the world? Do you know in the world today there is a ranking system– which is despicable in the eyes of God, despicable. We have a ranking system in the world. We rank famous people as more important. We rank uh, successful athletes as being more important. We rank beautiful people as being more important, people with with money as being more important. If you're famous, you're more important. That's contrary to the word of God. God says He's no respecter of persons. God sees us all equal but the world doesn't. The world legitimizes certain people over other people and it is a sick, sick, sick system. It is so sick that we will legitimize a successful athlete over a, a, just a regular guy in high school. We think that Michael Jordan is more valuable than your next-door neighbor, I mean, all this stuff is crazy. We believe in our society that people, actors, and actresses - who make movies - are valued much more than, than regular people– and I don't even like to use the word regular where there's no such thing as a regular person. If you're in Christ, you're a joint heir with Jesus Christ, a member of the royal priesthood, been raised up and sitting, seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. This is our legitimacy. But if we buy into the world’s system of ranking people according to world standards, you know, again, their rankings– you, if you're a pastor, if your church is small then you're not really much of a pastor. You're not as good a pastor as the person with a hundred people in the church or the person, the person with a 100-member church is not nearly as valuable as the man with a– pastor with a 500-member church. And then the pastor with a 500-member church is not as important as the pastor with a thousand-member church and this is illegitimacy. This is an illegitimate way of gaining value and worth and it is contrary to the word of God, it’s contrary to the heart of God. And Satan loves it. It's a spirit of illegitimacy. It's a spirit of illegitimacy that makes you compare yourself to other people based on all kinds of the world’s system. 

In the world’s system– and I love the church has gotten, but it has gotten into the church. We have Christian movie stars, we have Christian superstars, superstar pastors, famous pastors. I mean, like, you know, “Well, my pastor on Sunday said this but Jensen Franklin, did you hear what he said? He is the, he is the best.” Well, I don't think Jensen Franklin thinks like this, but we think like that. You see, what I'm saying is the spirit is prejudiced. It causes us to be prejudiced, to believe that value and worth is given to certain people who have certain accomplishments, certain number of downloads from YouTube, a certain number of followers um, uh, that have famous, that have made a successful movie, played in the NBA, played in the NFL, have a political office, drive a nice car, are famous from some shape form or fashion; the rich and famous. And, and this is the people that are legitimate, which is absolutely false.

God sees us all as equal. Paul made it clear, he tried to show us that principle. He said in Galatians, “There’s neither Jew or Greek, Barbarian or Scythian, slave or free…” we're all one in Christ Jesus. But the spirit of illegitimacy makes you strive to prove yourself, strive to succeed. Now, even success you know, to succeed. When I see strive to succeed. The way I was, I was raised and growing up, strive to succeed means to strive to have a lot of money, strive to be successful in business, strive to have a lot of money in the bank, and a nice house, and a nice car, and - I love boats - and a nice boat, and whatever. Striving to succeed, striving to have a position, striving to have a title. You see this in the church. We strive to have a title. We, we want to be sure that we're a bishop or an apostle or, or an elder or a, a title, or a prophet. And titles are nothing but job descriptions that– a title does not elevate one person above another person, that's contrary to the word of God. But the spirit of illegitimacy will illegitimize you, where if you do not have a title then you're not as important as the guy or girl who what– man or woman with a title, does that make sense? We're all one in Christ Jesus. But here comes the spirit of illegitimacy whispering to you, saying you're not as good as the pastor, you're not a five-fold minister, you do not have the, you know… you're, you're called to be a prophet but you haven't been recognized as a prophet, who– you know, who are you? Um, you have an apostolic call but they haven't given you the apostolic title, and all these traps. It's so worldly.

You know, I was raised um, I'm just you know, a guy raised in America. When I was growing up, I, I loved to play sports. And I played sports you know, into my middle aged years I played a lot of sports, I played a lot of uh… I played basketball, I was on the tennis team, played a lot of tennis, I played some football, golf and this kind of stuff. And I remember the trap, even as a young man where if you won the game you were legitimized, if you lost the game you were illegitimate. If you lost the game you were a what? Loser. Loser. That you had winners and losers. The winners were valuable, the losers were losers, they were not important. And so here we are raised as a kid to get my self-esteem on how well I hit a baseball or how many points I scored in a basketball game. Do you see how sick that is? But it's very ingrained, it is very ingrained in our culture to get our worth and legitimacy by some type of performance or worldly achievement and it is not, it is not coming from God. Think about Jesus. Jesus rode a donkey. He didn't live in, in a mansion, He hung out with poor people. He walked just to– He walked around as an average guy. Some people argue “Oh, He was wealthy.” Well, He did get a lot of wealth when he was born, the wise men bought some pretty cool gifts there, but that's not the point. Jesus– the Israelites felt that Jesus the Messiah was going to be this conquering king who was going to overthrow the Romans, and here Jesus comes and it's the form of an ordinary man who was actually, was God showing us the way. And, but you see, the Jews could not acc– many of the Jews, the Pharisees and Saducees, could not accept Him because he was not titled king, not sitting on a throne in the, in a huge palace with a vast army around Him. What of course they didn't realize was He was king of the universe.

But you see, that spirit of illegitimacy… What I want you to understand is your value and your worth comes from Jesus Christ, the fact that Jesus gave His life for your life. That is legitimacy. Your legitimacy does not come from your money, your looks, your title, your title on the job, your title at church, that does not legitimize you. As a matter of fact, when you fall into the worldly trap of thinking that titles, money, position, and fame legitimizes you, you live life on a roller coaster. You're up and down. You know, when you're successful, you feel great about yourself, when you have a bad, bad moment, you feel horrible about yourself. You take a typical guy. If you– when a guy is working a good job, normally he feels good about himself, and making some money but he, when he loses that job– I've watched men over the years when they lose their job and they become unemployed, their self-worth and their value, their self-value, the way they see themselves, all of a sudden they become illegitimate. The spirit of illegitimacy hits them because they're unemployed. Well, it's, it's a serious problem but it has nothing to do with their identity. But you see, we identify ourselves as men - and women too - by our job, by our money, by our achievements, by our worldly success, and the spirit of illegitimacy, the demon, evil spirit, loves this system because it keeps us away from the truth of God. It keeps us from living in the revolution faith of the finished work of Jesus Christ. We live according to the world’s system and we're constantly frustrated, un, unsatisfied, ill-content, and many times not doing the job.

So many times I've seen pastors struggle with this spirit, thinking that they have failed because there's only 35 people in their Church. That's not a failure, it's not a failure, it's an intensive care ward, hahaha. And so, church is not valued by the size of it. God loves every one of us. If you're a pastor and you pastor three people and they're saved and they're going to heaven, God says “Well done.” It's not the size, it's not the quantity, it's not the amount that gives you legitimacy, it's Jesus Christ, it's Jesus Christ that gives you legitimacy. But the spirit of illegitimacy attacks in a thousand ways. A thousand ways. You're, you go through a, a divorce, all of a sudden you're illegitimate as a wife or a husband. You go through a business failure, you’re illegit– you're illegitimate as a businessman. You, you see, what I’m– you have a church split, you're illegitimate as a pastor because we're basing our worth, value, and identity on our achievements. That's not who we are, that's what we do, that's what we– that's our work, that's our job but it's not our identity. 

You talk to most men, you intro– you, when you meet a man and you'll say “He,y nice to meet you. What do you do?” “Well, I'm a carpenter.” “Well, I'm a salesman.” “I'm an electrician.” And what are you hearing there, what you're hearing is a man identifying himself by his job, by his trade. Well, that's what you do but that's not who you are. Then what happens when they lose their job, all of a sudden who they are is gone and it's very confusing. I've seen people and married couples where you know, their identity is wrapped up in each other and you know, it's great to be one flesh and that's all good, but then one spouse dies, and it, it’s whe– this– so this lady, “I was, I was Mrs. Smith for so many years. Now my husband died, I don't know who I am anymore.” 

We are children of God. Before we're in our mother's womb, God knew us and He called us and He ordained us. We are joint heirs, we are redeemed, we are saved, we are saints, we are sanctified. We are who God says we are. We have become new creations in Christ, this is who we are. Now because of who we are, it's a good thing to achieve, it's a good idea to make money, it's a good idea to grow your church, it's a great idea, but it does not legitimize you. See, when you get your legitimacy from your work, it is a denial in a way, of the finished work of Jesus Christ because your value is coming from your performance. We're saved by grace, not by works, not by works, not by works. But in our culture, everything is about works. It's always about work, work, work. It's your works that define you, it's your job that defines you, it's your success that defines you, it's your ministry that defines you. And those are lies and the spirit of illegitimacy feeds it, feeds it, feeds it. So underneath all this stuff, no matter how much you do, you always have this little voice telling you that you're not measuring up, you're not as good as, you're a failure, you, you're shameful, you're condemned. I worked in, in business for many years. I owned six different companies. I was, I guess in the world system I was a successful businessman but there was something inside of me for years, that, that voice that I was never happy. I was– it was never enough, there was never– I was never satisfied, I was never content. Something was just not right, I just could not find peace. I had to find myself in Christ.

I got– one day, one day, back in the, back in the day, I got baptized with the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit came upon me and then I, I accepted that I was called not as a businessman but I was called as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was all about Jesus, this became my identity. Now, I'm not saying that my identity is my ministry, but I am saying that when I was working the world’s system, I was constantly frustrated and I constantly felt legitimate and I had a demon spirit of illegitimacy reinforcing that. What I want you to realize is that, that spirit of illegitimacy is huge. He is common, he's probably the most common demon that there is. And even you listening to me today, there's that little voice your whole life that's trying to illegitimize you, make you feel like you have failed, you're not measuring up, you're not as successful as, you're comparing yourself with other people, you're trying to measure up on your job and your marriage and your, in your whatever you're doing. You're trying to measure up. I think this is one of the reasons men are so competitive. We're always trying to measure up. We have to win to be someone. You see this in sports all the time, you have to win to be someone. You see it in business, you have to have to be successful - world successful - make a lot of money to be important. How important is it that Jesus, the son of God, the King of the Universe, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, swapped His life for your life? That's your legitimacy. That makes you legitimate, that Jesus exchanged His worth, His value, His life for your life on the cross and you died with Him and you rose in victory with Him. That's who you are. Now because of who you are, go do what you want to do and do it with a spirit of excellence but do it as a response to who you are, not to become someone that you think you should be because you already are that person if you have accepted Christ as your savior, amen.

I hope the show has been a blessing to you. I appreciate everyone listening. Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, anyone listening to me that's being attacked by the spirit of illegitimacy Father, I rebuke and renounce that spirit. I renounce that spirit of legitimacy now. Father, we are Your children, that's our legitimacy, that's our identity. And Father, forgive us for thinking that our worth came from our performance here on earth, our achievements, our titles, our appearance, our money, that's not our identity, Father. Our identity and our value is in You and Father, we submit to You, we surrender to You, we trust You now, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ. And I renounce the spirit of illegitimacy over everyone listening who's being attacked by this spirit, maybe your whole life the scheme of the enemy, this evil, vile spirit that wants you to question yourself, I renounce that spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

And folks, I encourage you to keep renouncing that spirit. Do not be as the Apostle Paul said, do not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. And one of the biggest schemes there is, is a scheme to illegitimize you, attack your self-worth, attack your value. He even did it to Jesus, “If you be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread,” trying to get Jesus to question Himself. Don't question yourself folks, you are a child of God and a joint heir with the Lord and savior in Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you so much for listening. This is Dr. Ray Self and you've been listening to Self Talk with me. Amen.

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Hey, it's Dr. Ray Self. I hope this show has been a blessing. I really appreciate you listening to me today and uh, you know, it's just uh, it's just terrific having you with me every, every week. Don't forget to go to the website for the podcast. This is where you can subscribe, give me a review which is very important, and share. Um, and share this also on the website, you know. It's icmcollege.org/selftalk. On the website you, you can see every single episode I've ever done and get on our email list, and I really appreciate you. If you can, donate to help me do this show. Every month so far the show has– we've gone in the hole. Uh, the show, what makes this show go is the International College of Ministry who sponsors it but if you could help us with this show, partner with me, it'd be great. It's icmcollege.org/donate however, just be led by the Holy Spirit on that, that's all I ask. Be led by the Holy Spirit. 

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Hey, as an added bonus to today's show, I've also included and I believe it's uh, underneath the podcast show notes, it's a complete handout on dealing with the spirit of illegitimacy. It's about seven pages worth, I hope you'll enjoy that. God bless you.