Is That You, God?

Hello and welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. This is a show that gives you real answers for tough issues, full of spirit and truth. It's been my heart for many years just to set captives free, to give people the answers but with love and compassion and the leading of the Holy Spirit to overcome obstacles in their life. Things that keep them from their promised land. That is the purpose of this show. Thank you for listening. Be sure and check out our website, icmcollege.org/selftalk. That's where you can subscribe, you can follow us, you can also give us a great review. Thank you for listening to today's show.

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Hello, I'm Dr. Ray Self. Thank you for listening. In my last show, I was talking to you about what to do when God wants your attention and how God will go to such extremes to get your attention. We talked about Moses and the burning bush, that's pretty extreme. We talked about Peter, couldn't catch any fish and all of a sudden, Jesus says cast your net again, he catches more fish than he could ever dream of. Talked about Paul on the road to Damascus and a bright light appearing from heaven and Jesus meeting him personally and then actually becomes blind. 

So many times in the bible, you see God using extreme measures to get someone's attention, especially people that he has a call of God on their life. Especially people that are called to some special purpose. And I've said this many times and my heart is to help you get into your promised land. Your promised land is the place God created you to be doing what God called you to do and there have been dark forces, demonic forces, demonic schemes, trying to keep you out of your promised land as long as you can remember. And I've talked about that a lot. In Corinthians, Paul said we should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. We need to understand that the devil is trying to stop us from our purpose. That's the way he attacks God. He doesn't attack God directly, he attacks God indirectly by attacking you and keeping you away from your purpose. And he does that with temptations, and distractions, and toxic relationships, and abuse, and thousands of weapons. 

The bible says in Isaiah, no weapon formed against you will prosper but the first part of that scripture it said there are weapons formed against you. Now ultimately, these weapons will not succeed but weapons are formed against you. And not to be aware of the weapons that are coming against you to keep you from God's best is just foolish. Once you're aware of the scheme of the enemy against your life, you can defeat that scheme. My scheme I suffered with my whole life was the scheme of Ray, you don't matter. Ray, you don't count. It's not even being unworthy, it was like I was invisible and he would send messengers in the form of teachers, coaches, friends, family, to enforce that message until finally, I said wait a second, that's not the truth, I do matter. 

And I begin to fight that scheme and realize the scheme- as a matter of fact, one of the cool things is the scheme is nearly always 180 degrees different than who you really are. For instance, um, if you fought with fear your whole life, or anxiety your whole life, truth is you're probably called to be a very bold and courageous person. If you have fought with the idea of rejection and betrayal, you may be called as a leader. Maybe the scheme against you has been illegitimacy, you know, do you really matter? Are you really valuable? Do you really count? Which means you are extremely valuable, called to something great.

But the point of this is… what I want to talk about today, this is called Is That You, God? You see, God so many times in our life, he intervenes in our life, he interjects himself in our life to get our attention. Sometimes that interjection is a still small voice. It could be an unusual circumstance. With me, it was an audible voice. I've talked, to- told the story multiple times. I'm a businessman working in the corporate world. I've got to where I went into business for myself, I owned multiple businesses. I'm driving down a little two-lane highway in Mississippi in a pickup truck to check on one of my businesses. I heard an audible voice say Ray, I've called you into the ministry. An audible voice in the truck with me. A voice: Ray, I have called you to the ministry. God got my attention and I knew it was him. I knew it was him because it was the furthest thing from my mind.

You see, God's ways are not our ways, his thoughts and our thoughts. And that's how we know so many times, it's God talking to us because it's not what we would think of. When I'm driving my truck down that little two-lane road, I was not thinking of ministry, I promise you. I was thinking of making money, I was thinking of a new business strategy, I was thinking of how I could manage my inventory, pay my bills, all these kind of things. And God spoke to me and shocked me and surprised me. You see, God wants you in your promised land. He wants you doing what you are created to do, and he will get your attention. He will speak to you. Sometimes God's voice is in a circumstance. Maybe life has just gotten incredibly hard, like you've reached, reached a dead end, you can go no further, you burn out, I cannot go this direction anymore. That could be God speaking to you. I just cannot make it over this mountain, I don't have the strength, I don't have the energy, this is just not working out. That can be God speaking to you.

So many times, God will let us bottom out in order to look up but God has a plan for your life. Being a part of that plan is the only place, and I'll say this again, it's the only place where you're going to find peace and satisfaction. It's the place you need to be doing the thing you're called to do because not only for your benefit, but don't be selfish. It's for the benefit of those around you, it's for the benefit of those God has assigned to your life. God's created you for something amazing, and I promise you it's bigger than you could ever imagine because that's who God is.

So how do we know when God's directing us? How do we know when God is speaking to us? You know, God speaks through the bible very loudly and very clearly. I love to read scripture and you know, sometimes you're just reading the bible and all of a sudden- we used to say the verse just jumped off the page at you- it jumps off the page, excuse me, and you're thinking wow, I never really saw that in that verse before but I see it now. It jumps off the page at me. God's trying to show me something here. 

You've got to be sensitive to his voice and we can train ourselves to hear his voice but I want to tell you, the author of the bible, God himself, is still speaking. Yes, he speaks through his word, but to say that's the only way he speaks and he stopped speaking two thousand years ago when the bible was completed is ridiculous. He's still speaking now. He doesn't contradict his word, his written word. But we're his children, we have his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's not, not deaf and dumb, the Holy Spirit speaks, the Holy Spirit is alive. Jesus is alive and he speaks to us. It's up to us to know, God, is that you? God, is that you? 

So how do you learn to recognize God's voice? How does God speak to us? Well, one of the ways obviously is through dreams, I mean, there's dreams that- You know, I dream a lot. I dream all the time. Some people say they never dream. I dream a lot. A lot of my dreams are literally just, they're just me. It's just me. It's not, you know, it's me, it's the pizza I ate, you know, it's just thoughts. But there's other times I have dreams that kind of the theme of the dream keeps repeating itself and when that happens, I pay close attention. I have paid close attention to that. I remember multiple times I had dreams that I was somehow in the Navy and on the aircraft carrier. And I'd be on this aircraft carrier and either I'd be with my father or another good friend of mine in ministry. And I'm on the aircraft carrier and I'm looking for my room where I'm supposed to be. I'm trying to find my place in this aircraft carrier. I know there's an assignment so I'm literally walking down the hallways of this aircraft carrier looking for my, my quarters where I'm supposed to be in this… And so I really, and I kept having this dream over and over again and I know God was trying to show me something about something great. Something big that I was to be a part of and I needed to find my place in.

Dreams are one way that God speaks. I encourage you as many people have taught,

put a notepad by the bed. Write down the dream. Especially pay attention to dreams that seem to have a common theme, and you do this over and over. Some people say when a dream is from God, you will automatically remember it. I don't know about that. Now I'm not a great dream interpreter. I used to get the phone calls all the time, Dr. Self, I had a dream and um, I really want you to interpret it for me. I just, sometimes I'd cringe. I said well, let's just pray because one of the best things you can do is pray for interpretation. 

So God speaks through dreams, but God also speaks to us a number of ways. I love that still small voice. I believe God speaks to us through gut feelings. We used to have that expression we call I've got a gut feeling. Well, your gut so to speak is your heart. It's the center of your being and this is where the Holy Spirit is and sometimes the Holy Spirit will give us a feeling, a sensation. It can be, we used to, it could be something like a check in your spirit, something's not right here. That's God warning you. Or it could be I feel really good about this or I have this feeling, I have this sensation. So many times that feeling, that sensation, what we used to call the gut feeling, can be God. It literally can be God, so pay attention to that.

I remember years ago, I'll never forget this. I was, I think I was just out of college and I had a girlfriend, I was just crazy about, about my girlfriend. And, she always got off work, she worked at a retail store, and she got off work at nine o'clock at night and one night, about nine o'clock, I just had this feeling, this horrible feeling like I need to, I need to get in my car and go find her, I mean, just nothing going on, I just need to get in my car and go find her. So I got in my car and I drove and I had this feeling I needed to go to this intersection -I still remember that intersection- and I drove to this particular intersection -it was in Memphis, Tennessee- and when I got to this intersection, there she was and she had a car wreck and I literally drove straight to the car wreck just simply on a gut feeling. You know, that's the way God works. Sometimes it's just a gut feeling.

Sometimes when God speaks, it's literally with words to our mind. Pay attention to thoughts that are not your thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere like where did that come from? Is that just my imagination? I would not think of that. Pay close attention to that. I also recommend, even moving prophetically, pay attention to your first thought. Pay attention to your first impression. And so many times we get these thoughts out of nowhere that something we wouldn't think of, and I really believe many, many times that's God trying to speak to us and we can train ourselves to hear God's voice. I used to do this, I used to train myself, I mean, I would ask God a question. God, where are my car keys? I still need to ask him that about three or four times a day, where are my car keys? Could you tell me? And I would get an impression and that helped train me how to recognize God's voice. 

So many times, God's voice is just a, it could be a feeling, it could be words that pop into your mind that are a thought or a picture that pops into your mind out of nowhere, and the reason I say first impression, that's important because if you don't, if you, your second, third, fourth, fifth impression is usually you and your analysis and your reasoning and your logic and God's voice usually gets drowned out. So pay close attention to thoughts, feelings, impressions, or pictures, that seem to come out of nowhere. It could be God speaking to you. And you’ll know eventually because you have these thoughts and impressions, and then there’s confirmation. Or it's, it turns out to be true, like when I had that feeling, drive to that intersection, I was concerned about my girlfriend. Well, it turned out it was true, she had a car wreck. She was okay but she was, you know, shaken up.

But I learned something from that. So many times God is trying to get our attention. He's trying to speak to us and we're just letting our mind just go crazy with, we're so focused on other things or we're just not focused at all and our mind is just totally distracted. I did notice one thing, I have noticed one thing for years. God tends to speak with me, and I've interviewed a number of my students or asked this question to them, how many of you have heard God speak to you while you're driving a car? And you’ll not believe how many people say yeah, God has spoken to me multiple times driving a car. Sometimes I think that driving the car, we're in this state of mind where we're, we're focused on driving but we're not completely uh, consumed by it. It's something about that state. 

Another hilarious, I mean, okay, just bear with me. Another hilarious way that God speaks, if you're listening to me, just hang in there and I bet you you'll say yeah, and that is in the shower. Why God speaks to me in the shower? I've asked this question to Christians, I said has God ever spoken to you in the shower? And it's hilarious how many people say God has spoken to them in the shower. Maybe it's just that particular state of mind where he can get our attention, I don't know. 

God speaks through his word, God speaks through impressions. God will speak through pictures, God will speak through a word, he’ll put a word in your- or a message in your, in your mind that comes out of nowhere. Other ways that God speaks is through people. Sometimes a person, you could be having a casual conversation with someone and they'll say something that really pierces your spirit. It pierces your heart. Well, that's God, many times that's God speaking to you. It could be from somebody you don't know, someone, it could be from a child. It's just somebody talking and all of a sudden, they say something and you know it's from God. It just, it hits your spirit. Many times when God speaks, it's a repetition, it's a confirmation, it's something he's been telling you over and over and you hear it or maybe he spoke to your spirit, these particular words. Then all of a sudden, you're talking to your next door neighbor and he says the same words out of nowhere and it's God speaking to you. You cannot put God in a box. You know, how does God speak? A thousand ways, or more. You cannot put him in a box and he's unique with every individual.

Some people say God speaks in terms that you understand. My former pastor was a great car mechanic, he loved cars, loved anything mechanical, and he used to say that God would speak to him in mechanical terms. And me, I love boats and I cannot tell you how many times God has spoken to me and using boats as an analogy. He'll use things that are near and dear to our heart to communicate with us. You learn to hear God's voice by practice, yes, there's sometimes you think it's God's voice and it's not. Then of course there's always the sermon on Sunday when the pastor is preaching a message and all of a sudden, he says something, it’s like man, that's personal, that's, that's for me, that is personal, well, okay. You know that you've had that happen.

Then there's always the person with the prophetic anointing, I have a word from the Lord for you, I believe I hear that God saying to you, and this person, this minister puts his hand on you and gives you a message from the Lord. Now, I will say this, I've had this happen to me many, many times. Many times I, I discern, and discernment is critical, that it really is a message from God. Many times I've discerned nope, that's not a message from God. If God is speaking, if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, remember this, you have the Holy Spirit in you. There's a holy spirit that maybe, the Holy Spirit may be speaking to you through another person, but the Holy Spirit will recognize and come into agreement with his own voice so if the Spirit of God is speaking to you, the Spirit of God in you is in agreement with that, okay that's called bearing witness- there's an agreement. But if someone or something or somehow something's being spoken to you and it's not God speaking to you, the Holy Spirit in you is not in agreement with it. We call that having a check in the spirit. There's just, it doesn't, it doesn't resonate. It doesn't feel right, it doesn't seem right. And of course, obviously, if it violates a principle in the bible or God's word, it's definitely not God speaking.

My point is this, God is trying to get our attention right now in the midst of- we came out of this covid, this horrible covid thing, we still got it going on, not as bad. There's so many changes and so many things happening right now, so much transition in the body of Christ. We need to hear God, we need to hear his voice, we need to be able to recognize his voice, and I want to tell you something, God's trying to get your attention and one thing you can do to learn how to recognize God is re- put, put your life on rewind. Look back, look back a few years. What, what is God- is there something that God's been trying to get across to you? Is it- has God allowed certain things to happen in your life? To give you a message? To teach you a lesson that was a particular message? Have there been moments when God intervenes, you know, you have this God intervention, you know? And God does something extreme to get your attention- like when I heard that audible voice- to get your attention I've had, I had a time when I was young when he saved my life. He pulled me out of a very, very dangerous situation where I could have been killed. And, I'm not an expert at hearing God's voice, I want to hear his voice, I really, really, really want to hear his voice, but it's up to us to listen.

You know, just, you can get still and say Lord, speak to me. I want to hear you. The book of James said if anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask of the Lord who gives liberally, liberally, but we should not doubt. In other words, when we have a question, we need help, we need wisdom for a situation, the bible says we should ask God and believe he's speaking to us, and believe he's speaking to us. Another thing, that’s s common sense thing is, when you pray, get quiet. Don't do all the talking. Pray and get quiet. It's a conversation. Give God a chance to respond. I have some people in my life that have the gift of exhortation and man, they can talk. And so many times when I'm around them, I do not have a chance to get a word in edgewise. I think God's the same way. We are spending so much time talking and asking and begging and pleading and, that we're not listening to him talk. You know, prayer is a conversation.

So the point of this show is, it's called Is That you God? We can and we have a responsibility to train ourselves to hear the voice of God. Jesus said my sheep know my voice and they follow me. How am I going to follow Jesus if I cannot recognize his voice? How am I going to know where to go, what to do, you know? Honestly, most of us live by trial and error. We try things and it turns out not to be of God and we end up failing or frustrated and sometimes we accidentally move right into what God's had for us and that's good, you know, we can find it by accident. But so many times I think God is trying this to redirect us. He said look, you're not exactly where I want you to be. I've got a big assignment for you, my friend. God is saying I've got an assignment for you, listen up. That's what he did with Moses, it's what he did with Paul, that's what he did with Peter, that's what he did with the woman at the well, that's what he did with Matthew the tax collector and Philip and Andrew, it's what he did with all of them. He got their attention because he had something bigger for them, something greater for them. And I believe you listening to me, God's got something greater for you, God's got something amazing for you. And no matter how it happens, be listening for God however he wants to speak to you. God is that you? Say yeah… I think that's God.

Now, big point: once you hear him, now you've got to obey him. Obey him. And for you doubters out there, you can always wait for confirmation. Normally if God's trying to get you to do something, he's not going to tell you this once, he's going to confirm it multiple times. How many times did he confirm to us Jesus was the Messiah? You know, God likes to confirm and I think that's maybe because of our lack of faith. I've received prophetic words from ministers for years and most of the time when a minister gives me a prophetic word, it's a word that God's already been trying to tell me. So is that you God? It's up to us. So we ask the question is that you God? And God goes yeah, that's me, and we go what? I didn't hear you. I think it pleases God to recognize and to know his voice. I think your family needs you to know the voice of God, your wife, your spouse, your husband, your community, your job, the world. We, we all need to hear and know the voice of God so god can put us where he wants us to be doing what we're created to do. There's a lot at stake with this. There's a tremendous amount at stake with this and I pray right now, and I, that you will know the voice of God. 

Heavenly Father, I thank you for each person listening to this podcast. Father, thank you for speaking to us. Father, forgive us for missing our God moments, for missing these moments when you were trying to get our attention. Father, we repent. Forgive us, Father. Lord, right now we ask you to speak to us. Help us to hear your voice. Forgive us for our unbelief, forgive us for being too distracted to hear. So Father, I just declare and believe a blessing over each one hearing, listening to this podcast. Lord, ask you to speak to each one. Confirm your voice, your will, your purpose, for each one listening to this show, Father. I know you have great plans for them, exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever think or ask for, Father. So Lord, I give you praise in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Well, this is Dr. Ray Self. Thank you again for listening. Be sure and check out my new website for the pod, podcast, icmcollege.org/selftalk. Also, there you can follow, you can subscribe and you can also give us a review, so. And I'm about 80 shows on this uh, page so that would be great. Thank you for listening, this is Dr. Ray Self. God bless you.

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Thanks again for listening to Self Talk. It's been my honor and privilege to be able to be with you today through the wonderful world of the internet. Be sure and check out my resources, there's many resources that can help you out at my website, icmcollege.org, that's the college International College of Ministry. There are free lessons, you can get a free evaluation, there's a lot of things you can do on that website. Also, check out our podcast website which is icmcollege.org/selftalk. Be sure and maybe consider purchasing one of my books, Hear His Voice Be His Voice or Redeeming Your Past Finding Your Promised Land on Amazon. Thanks again for listening, we appreciate you.