How to Find and Break Through to Your Promised Land

Welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. This is a show that gives you real answers to tough issues. For many years, I have witnessed countless Christians suffering under the schemes of Satan, unable to enter into the best that God has for them. This show is full of spirit and truth, that is my motto, spirit and truth, setting the captives free, giving you the answers that you need to find god's best for your life and understand what's happening to you and how to get free. Be sure and check out our website, icmcollege.org/selftalk. This is where you can find all the episodes, you can subscribe, you can follow and even give us a great review. God bless you.

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In this show, I want to talk to you about a subject that's near and dear to my heart and that is the subject of your promised land and why aren't you there and what is stopping you from being there. I wrote a book years ago called Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land and it was really my story how, for so many years, I worked in corporate America and started work for large corporations. I started a number of businesses and had, you know, really good success, made a lot of money, but always felt like a square peg in a round hole. No matter what I did, I was never satisfied and so I fell into the trap that many people are in in the world, I call it the trap of never enough, that's where you just keep working and working and working thinking if I could just get that raise, if I could just get that promotion, if I could just get that position or maybe I need to start my own business or maybe I need to invest here, maybe I, I need to do this and it was, it was looking for affirmation, confirmation, success and, and you're trying to at some point find a place where you can go haha, I did it, I'm successful, I can rest now and you never get there; and the reason you never get there is, is because it's not what you were created to do. That's what, where it was with me. 

Now, I'm not saying that businessmen are not created to do business because there are… without them, without businessmen, I don't know what the kingdom of God would do. And when we talk about purpose and destiny and what you're created to do, it could be business, it could be a lot of things. Of course, the number one, and most important thing you're created, if you're saved, and designed to be a child of God; a joint heir with Jesus Christ, a member of the royal priesthood. The most important thing is who we are; it's our identity in Christ. When we're born again, we become a new creation, we're not the same person we used to be and this new creation is, is who God called you to be. You see, when Adam and Eve were created, the garden of Eden was already there, the world was already there, their job was waiting for them, their purpose was waiting for them to have dominion, to be fruitful, to multiply, to tend the garden, name the animals, the whole job: it was all waiting for, waiting for them. Of course, they kind of messed up a little bit with that uh, you know, forbidden fruit thing but the point is, you know the scripture everybody quotes, before you're in your mama's womb I knew you? Well - which is a great scripture for the sin of abortion because you know, God knew this before we were even born, he knows these babies in mama's wombs, they have a purpose and you have a purpose, and until you find that promised land- your promised land is critical for your life, it's where your peace is going to be, it's where your fulfillment is going to be, it's where your happiness is going to be. You know, you'll say well what is a promised land?

A promised land is the place God's called you to be doing the thing you're created to do and the benefits are enormous. Now, in order to get to that, you have to know who you are in Christ, I mean, that's obviously the most important thing but the reason maybe I'm so passionate about this is because I lived it I mean, for years. I didn't, I didn't start my, I didn't find my promised land till I was 45 years old. And I'm not saying I wasted my life because all things work for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purposes so God doesn't waste anything, but I worked in business, I worked in retail, wholesale, I've worked at software business, computer business, you know, I did a, I did a lot of things. But something was always missing, something didn't fit right and I began to realize that I was not in what I was called to do.

Now, it didn't dawn on me like one day I woke up and went oh, this is what I know I'm called to do, I'm kind of, I kind of backed into it, sort of found it by a series of divine circumstances which is um, another story for another day. My call - it was a to call to ministry - you know, I'm called to teach, I'm called to preach, I'm called to move prophetically and write and this is what I'm created to do and this is when I am happy. I'm happy when I'm doing it, I'm happy with this podcast, I'm sitting here in my office recording this and just believing that there's a lot of people listening to me that I can impact their life. You know, so many times growing up people will ask you so what do you want to do? Remember when you were in high school the big question was so what do you want to do? What do you want to do? You know, we still ask kids that, you know, teenagers what do you want to do? I think it's a terrible question; I think it's a terrible question and the reason it is, is because when I was in high school, I didn't know what I wanted to do, problem one. Problem two, if I knew what I wanted to do, it was not going to be what God created me to do so I got multiple problems.

So the deal is what has God created you to do? What do you believe your divine calling of God is? Because that's where a person is going to find success, that's the only place and I mean this sincerely, it's the only place you're going to find peace, it's the only place you're going to find satisfaction and contentment because if you don't get into your divinely created purpose, you're going to have some success but you're never going to have complete peace and satisfaction. You will keep striving, you'll keep working, you'll keep looking, you'll keep trying to find it until you get there so it's critical that we find our promised land. I wrote, you know I wrote an article and I said you know, each of us is a tool in the master's toolbox, designed for a specific purpose. Years ago Rick Warren wrote that book Purpose-Driven Life and you know, he really did hit the nail on the head - excuse the pun, it's pretty good, you know, tools, nail on the head. I'm glad my wife's not in the office right now because she'll be rolling her eyes at me and going, giving me that little sign across the throat, cut, cut, cut, don't say that. You know she does that a lot when I preach, I don't get it. You know she gives me this little rolly eye thing, a little slash across the throat, I'm not sure what that means, you know, I think I do know.

Here's the deal, and you have, you’re listening to me, there's a place God wants you to be. Now maybe it's exactly where you are, that's great. There's a job God's called for you, there's a, there's a skill God has given you, there's an ability God created in you and when that, this skill, this ability, this talent, it's unique to you and nobody can do it better than you because there’s only one you, it's made for you, wasn't made for me, it's not made for anybody else. You're fearfully and wonderfully made, there's nobody else like you in the entire universe. There's nobody better than you, there's nobody worse than you, there's only one you and you can only do what you're called to do and I can't do what you're called to do and nobody else can do it and the key to it, what my heart is, I'm compassionate and I want you to be happy; I want you to feel that peace inside, knowing you're in your purpose and your call; because not only will it benefit you and you'll have peace and you'll, you'll feel, you'll wake out of bed and go yeehaw instead of getting out of bed going oh, me. But it will help your family, your children, your spouse, your church, your community, everybody will benefit.

What's been going on, now this is heavy stuff I'm going to tell you right now, what's been going on your whole life is Satan has been trying to stop you from this. I don't know how he figures it out, but Satan pretty much has a good idea of what God's plans are for your life and he uses a myriad of weapons, temptations, people, situations, whatever he can do to stop this plan, this purpose, and keep you out of your promised land. You see, Satan cannot defeat God. I talk about this all the time. Satan is not going to go get in the boxing ring with God, okay? He's not going to do that, he can't do that, he has no chance. So what he does, is Satan attacks God by attacking God's people and the plan of God working through God's people. You see, God has given us a purpose, he's given us authority and power and the anointing to do this purpose and Satan doesn't want you to know your anointing, he doesn't want you to realize your authority, he doesn't want you to be filled with the Spirit and he definitely does not want you to be doing what God created you to do because that would benefit the kingdom of God and that would hurt him. So he spends countless amount of time trying to do things to you like distract you, tempt you, abuse you, put you in toxic situations, attack your self-esteem, attack your identity, maybe even try to kill you, hook you on drugs or alcohol, get you in places you don't need to be and the purpose I believe - Ray Self here, this is what I believe - I believe the purpose of all this is to keep you from your promised land because see, in your promised land that's where you flourish and that's where God's plan increases. 

You see, the Israelites you know, when they were in Egypt, they weren't doing a whole lot for the kingdom of God but when they got to their promised land, wow did things change. You have a promised land, you have a place God's called you to be. Now, I'm not saying you need to move to wherever, you know, move to Tahiti; I think that may be my promised land, maybe Hawaii. Can you feel it? I'm feeling Hawaii. You know, I'm thinking oh, my wife will buy into that, I'm definitely feeling a beach, beach condo. Yeah…anyway, my wife's not here, she's probably gonna nix all that. But your promised land is the place you're called to be and working in your gifting, your talents, and that's where you'll be fulfilled, that's where you'll be satisfied so let me give you some practical steps here. Step one, step one, find and discover your purpose. Now, one of the keys to that is your gifting. Your gifting is a key to your purpose. Your purpose is going to require skills and abilities and some of them will be supernatural and they're related to you and these are things that you're going to be good at. There are things that God has anointed you for, there are things that will come naturally to you and maybe not to other people, and there are evidence, there's evidence of this your whole life. If you really want to see your gifting and your purpose, look at your life, look at your life. Rewind the tape, look at your history.

Here's the question I asked my students a lot: what were you doing and where were you when you felt the most alive and the most peace? What were you doing? What was it? Now see, it may not be your exact purpose but it will be symbolic of your purpose or it’ll be a part of your purpose for for instance, maybe you're called to be, into leadership and even as a kid you were always the neighborhood leader, you were the captain of your baseball team of your soccer team or whatever, you're always leading but maybe now you're called to be a leader in business or a politician or a leader in the church and, but even your whole life, even as a kid you're always leading something. I love the story that Max Lucado tells, and it's been years ago so I'm gonna have to paraphrase it but the story went kind of like this: his father was a mechanic and he would have uh, Max come into the garage and help him work on cars and you know, Max being faithful to his father would, would get under the cars and help him pull the transmission or whatever but what Max really wanted to do was he wanted to get to the library. He couldn't wait to finish helping his father and get to the library where all the books were. And see, there's a message there, the message was books, he loved books. Max Lucado was one of the most prolific, now, Christian writers on the planet. So even as a kid, there were signs pointing to his purpose.

What's cool about purpose is it fits you like a glove. It feels good, it feels right, and one of the most important things is your purpose will always benefit people around you. Sometimes you know, there's a lot of gift testing. As a matter of fact, if you're listening to this podcast, and one of the key tests that will help you find your gifting is the motivational gift test which I can email to you. It's the motivational gift test. Now, this is the gifts that are mentioned in Romans 12 verses 6 through 10, and there are seven gifts mentioned there and they're known as motivational gifts or natural tendencies. It's the gift of perceiving, it’s, prophecy, which actually is translated perceiving in that scripture. Perceiving, uh, teaching, exhorting, serving, administration of compassion, giving, and what does - I think Don and Katie Fortune back in the 1980s did an extensive survey and found out that in the book of Romans, the Lord is actually talking about different personality types and it turns out, all of us actually have a blend of these gifts in the book of Romans. Now there are supernatural manifestation gifts of the Holy Spirit in Corinthians, chapter 12. Now, these are not supernatural gifts, these are known as natural gifting. Serving is not supernatural, that's natural. Maybe you have the gift of serving, that's the hands of Christ. Maybe you have the gift of exhortation you know, you're a great counselor, great speaker, great encourager, that's the mouth of Christ. Maybe you have the gift of compassion, you're tenderhearted, you feel what other people feel, you, you express the love of Christ, you, you sense when people are hurting and you just love to show mercy and grace, that's called the heart of Christ. Maybe you have that maybe you're a visionary who’s always shouldering responsibility, that's the gift of administration.

And so we all have these gifts but the point of this is, I could go on for hours about gifting, but your gifting will help you find your purpose. So step one is find your purpose, okay? Now if you want that test, email me at Dr. Ray Self, d-r-r-a-y-s-e-l-f @gmail.com. Say hey Dr. Self, I heard it on the show, would you please send me the motivational gift test? And I'll send it to you. It's actually a spreadsheet that is formulated and tallies up your score and will show you what your gifting is, it's really cool. So step one is find your gifting. Step two is war over it. You see, once you begin to discover who you are and what you're called to do, you're going to have to fight for it because there will be temptations, distractions, hurdles, hindrances, mountains, things to overcome because Satan does not want you to do it.

My students you know, icmcollege.org, International College of Ministry is an online Holy Spirit-filled seminary, I warn my students the moment you enroll, you need to start doing your spiritual warfare because Satan's going to try to stop you. When you start moving to another level or doing something new for God, this is when the attacks will come, the demonic attacks will come. Good news is greater is he that's in you than he who is in the world, so take your authority: in the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke any hindering spirits, in the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke any demonic spirit trying to stop me now. I renounce every scheme of the enemy against me, my plan will go unhindered, I'm covered under the name and the authority and the power of Jesus Christ, I will fulfill my call. Satan, get out, get away, get away from me, my family, do not touch me in the name of Jesus Christ. Get mad, get mean, get, get after it. 

Spiritual- step one, find your purpose, step two, fight for it. Fight for it. Don't let him take it from you. Know the schemes of the enemy. What is the scheme? I've talked about this on several podcasts, a scheme is a plan of the enemy against your life. Remember Paul said in Corinthians we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes so that we will not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. Then in Ephesians 6, put on the full armor of God so to be able to overcome the schemes of the enemy. I want you to know there's a scheme trying to stop you from getting into your promised land. When you become aware of it, you can defeat it. Common schemes are rejection, fear, unworthiness, illegitimacy is the most common one, you know, are you, do you matter? Do you really count? Are you really worthy? It's the same one that Satan tried to use on Jesus. Be aware. How do you know what a scheme, your scheme is? Well, your scheme has been the same thing as long as you can remember. Maybe you've suffered rejection as long as you can remember, maybe you felt unworthy as long as you can remember, maybe anxiety or fear has hit you over and over and over again. Man, why is it always me? It's a scheme, stop it in the name of Jesus Christ, do not allow it anymore.

So understand- and you know, Satan will send the wrong people into your life. He'll send a temptation, he'll put you in the wrong job, wrong relationship, wrong churches, but once you get a hold of your purpose, you will have a passion for this and nothing's going to stop you. I don't believe anything is going to stop you because you have a passion, you want this, you want to, you say no, I'm going to do this not only for me, I'm gonna do this for, for those around me, I'm gonna do this for Jesus, I'm gonna do this because this is why I'm here, it's why I'm here, and it's critical. 

Step one, find it. Step two, fight for it. And you can do it. Jesus said behold I've given you authority over snakes and scorpions, all the works of the enemy, okay? You have the Spirit of the living God in you. You have the Holy Spirit in you, no demon can stand against the Holy Spirit, but you have to take authority. He's given you authority, these signs shall follow those that believe, they will cast out demons, Mark 16. So fight, I mean, I don't like to fight but you know what, what's really cool is, the good news is this is a battle…you're gonna win it. the fight is not hard, but you do have to take authority, you do have to pray, may have to fast, but you will win the fight, you will win the fight. So you, step two is you fight for your purpose. What is step three? Step three may be the most important thing. Step three is settle and commit. I have seen Christians so many times get into what they’re call to do but they don't make the full commitment. You see, God honors faithfulness so once you get into your promised land, you're finally doing what you're created to do. You must commit to it because even in your promised land, Satan will still try to tempt you, distract you, and get you to quit but if you are faithful and you do not quit, there's so many promises, because you'll be faithful with a little, he'll make your ruler of much. If you do not faint, you'll reap a harvest in due season. There's all kinds of wonderful promises from God if you are faithful and so the critical thing, once you get to your promised land, is plant your roots, be committed, be faithful. Notice what you're called to do and your harvest will come, and it will come and if you, you backslide, you, you know, you get away from what you're called to do, say, Lord, forgive me. I repent, I'm distracted, I'm doing things you didn't call me to do. Lord, help me get on track, forgive me; and go back and just start doing it, start doing it again.

You see, I want you to be happy, I want you to live not only a blessed life but be a blessing to others. You see, there's a blessing called the blessing of overflow. Overflow is when you're so blessed, it overflows you into everybody around you. It's not just about you, it's about everybody. See, your purpose will always benefit other people and your blessing in your promised land will be more than you can, can contain therefore, it's going to have to pour out into your family, pour out into your church, pour out into your community, it is that important. So discover your purpose, whatever it takes. Ask your friends, ask for help. What do you see in me? What am I doing when I am the most alive? What is it what is that thing? And all of a sudden, the light bulb will go off and you’ll go wow, I should have known. That's it, that's what really makes me happy, that's when I really find peace. Man, I'm tired of these distractions and temptations, I'm not going to allow it anymore. I know what the devil's trying to do, I know he's trying to stop me from God's best and I'm not going to allow it anymore. Now I'm committed to do what God created me to do.

I hope this has been a blessing to you. This is my heart. You know, I have a passion for this. Anything I can do to help you, you can email me at drrayself@gmail.com. Again, check out our podcast website, check out our college, International College of Ministry. You know, there's a lot of things on there that could train you and equip you for your call, that's all I want to do. Anyway, God bless you, thanks for listening, this is Dr. Ray Self. God bless you and adios.

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Thanks for listening to Self Talk. I hope this show has been a blessing to you. Again, be sure and check out our website for the podcast, icmcollege.org/selftalk. Check out my book, Hear His Voice, Be His Voice if you want to know how to hear the voice of God and move prophetically. Also, check out Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land, both these books are available on amazon.com. I am the President of International College of Ministry. We are now enrolling at icmcollege.org/enroll, you can get a free evaluation, won't cost you anything to see what it would take to get a degree. Mainly, I appreciate you very much. Don't forget on our website to subscribe, give us a review and follow us. God bless you and thank you so much.