Stop Living in God's Permissive Will

Hello, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host Dr. Ray Self. This is a show where I'm going to give you some real answers to some tough issues. Today's show…I want to talk about living in God's permissive will. Do you know if you haven't found your call and moved into your promised land, you're just in God's permissive will and there's something much more for you? It may explain why you're not actually happy on the inside. Stay tuned to today's show. This is going to be fun it's going to be life-changing. Hope you enjoy it, I appreciate you, God bless you.

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Hey welcome to Self Talk, Dr Ray Self here. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for each person listening to me today. I pray Father that this show would be a blessing to them and somehow through your anointing and your revelation will impact and change their life. In Jesus name, amen.

So today's show is about getting out of God's permissive will. God permits a lot because God gives us a free choice. So many times here people ask why does God allow terrible things to happen and it's a really tough theological question because they say well God's in control. 

However, in God's sovereignty, he decided when he created us to give us a will. A free will where we could choose. I think and some other theologians think, and some writers that I know, believe that God did that so we could freely worship him and love him. If love isn't given freely then it's not really love at all is it? If we're simply robots under God's control and everything we do.

 So we have a free will but in that free will, we can choose Jesus Christ as our savior, we can choose to be born again, we can choose to be- to trust the Lord and be filled with this Holy Spirit, we can choose to operate in the authority and the power that God has given us. There's tremendous advantages to free will, so free will is a good thing when you make the right choices and unfortunately free will also gives opportunity for temptation and sin, giving in to temptation.

But with that being said, if you've ever read my book Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land, you know I have a tremendous passion for helping people find their promises. A promised land is the place God called you to be doing what God created you to do. Now that may be an oversimplification. The key thing is you're not an accident. You weren't born as a random happening. God's got a plan for your life. 

Before you were born- the book says, that, the Bible says- God says he knew you and he ordained you to something so if we're created for a purpose and created for a reason, until we get into that reason and that purpose, we're never really going to be fitting in. It's not going to work, it's not going to be happy, it's not going to be complete satisfaction. In other words, me Ray Self, I was designed for something particular. You,  whoever you are, you were designed for something particular. You were created for something particular.

Now, I'm not saying we only have one function in life. There's a lot of things I can do well, there's a lot of things I don't do well. As a matter of fact, if you've ever studied boundaries and listening to my teaching on boundaries- got some great, great courses on that. By the way, if you like my course on boundaries you can get it by emailing me, drrayself d-r-r-a-y-s-e-l-f @ gmail.com, make a $35 donation to our scholarship fund, then I will send you the download to that course. If you really want that course and you say Dr Self, we don't have 35 dollars, email me. I'll send it to you anyway, how about that?

So, we are defined by what we do well and what we do not do well. We're defined by what we like, we're defined by what we dislike, we're defined by our strengths, we're defined by our weaknesses, we're defined by our gifts and talents and we're also defined by things we're not gifted at. We're just we're defined by our appearance, we're defined by our emotions, we're defined by our desires. But you see all this definition, all these things that make up who we are, also points to a purpose for us, okay? It points to- I don't really like the word destiny- I like the word promised land.

You know, if you- I've told my story multiple times but just a very short version of my story is that I was working in business. When I graduated college- I'm going to tell you my age- around 1972, 73, maybe 73, I went into business. And I got to be honest I actually left with a few hours short of graduating. I came back many years later and finished up my bachelor's degree and some other degrees thank you Jesus, but I went into business. I wanted to please my father especially. He was a businessman and he was always telling me that “you know son, the money's in sales. You need to go into sales”. 

So next thing you know, I changed my college major to business management and I go into sales and marketing. I was pretty good at it but I was never really happy with it. It never just excited me. I mean, it challenged me, it provided some good income and I had some pretty good success with it. Some good success with it. I was good at sales but it was- I was always a square peg in a round hole. Something was never quite right with me. I was never fully satisfied. I didn't know what was wrong back then and we're talking about 70s moving into the 80s, into the 90s and I am working in sales and retail sales, wholesale sales; you wouldn't believe all the stuff I used to sell. I used to sell TVs, appliances, computers, software, it's pretty amazing stuff. Stereo equipment…

Anyway, um, sold all kinds of stuff. Owned my own. Several different companies, I owned several companies and you know, had good success. I had good success but you see something was always wrong. Something was just never quite right. I never knew why and so I did like most people in the world do is I kept striving and striving and striving, trying to reach that point where I can say ‘aha’, I have made it. But I never made it. I never got to the point where I feel like I made it. Something was wrong and what was wrong was I was not in my designed purpose. 

Guys, I was called to the ministry. I was called to the ministry. I can look back in my life right now and I can see evidence of a ministerial call on my life as far back as I go, even when I was working in business, even when I was in college and going crazy and doing stuff I shouldn't have been doing. I still had a call to the ministry. I had a call to teach I had a call to preach. I also had a call to write and that's what I was created to do and I didn't find that until I was around 45 years old and God had to let me hit bottom. God had to let me… you know, I went from God's permissive will to completely out of God's will to finally hitting bottom before, before I finally found the Holy Spirit and I found my purpose and I know, I mean, it doesn't make life perfect

and life Rosy in, in all areas but I know what I'm supposed to be doing. I know I'm a minister of the Gospel. I know I'm a writer and, and I know I can flow prophetically like nobody's business, that, that's just who I am. 

But there is evidence of this all along my life. All throughout my history there was evidence of this call and what I want to say to you is you may be in God's permissive will which means you're making it okay. You know, you're, you're doing pretty good but underneath it all you're not really satisfied. Something's just not quite right and some days it's more evident than other days and that's because you may not be in your promised land doing what you were created to do. 

Now also, I believe there's areas that God has assigned us to be in and you need to be in that area. I am- for years for me it was the Mid-South area which is the Memphis Tennessee area, that's called the Mid-South, and that's where I worked and that's where I worked, that's where I grew up, that's where I did my businesses and it's also where I started in ministry. And again, uh, ministry was was what I was created to do. I had to hit bottom before I found it but I did find it with the help of the Holy Spirit and he came upon me one day in a very powerful way- that's a whole nother story- but I did find my call and I have a passion for you-

I wrote a book about this and it tells my story, and it teaches you how to get into your promised land. If you haven't got it, I encourage you to get it. It's called Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land by Dr Ray Self. Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land. You can get it on amazon.com. It's not expensive, it's not- like eight dollars but it's a very good read, I get a lot of good reviews on it and so if you're in God's permissive will you are probably doing okay And that's the key word you're doing okay, not great, not spectacular, but okay. Unless you're not really a Christian not really following the Lord then you might be able to do spectacular although you're lost as a goose.

Now, I'm a Christian, this podcast is for Christians and if you're not a Christian, listen; you're most welcome to listen to this but I will talk from a Christian perspective not because that's what I believe because I know it's the truth. It's the truth. Christianity is not just a belief folks, it's the truth. It's, it's reality. I saw somebody- a little bit of a tangent here- today online talking about how you know Christianity is all based on faith and that's what God's about is faith. You know that it can't be proven, it's all about faith, I'm going wait a second here, it can be proven. The resurrection of Jesus Christ for instance, can be proven. You know how you prove something is true? You need witnesses, eyewitnesses. The resurrection of Jesus Christ if it had happened in modern times with over 500 witnesses, it would definitely pass the test in the court of law, okay? It can be proven.

So the point of it all is that I want you- I'm encouraging you to get out of God's permissive will it may start like this: “Lord”- it may be a prayer- “Lord, if I'm not in your will I pray you will show me your will. Make it clear to me. Help me to know, Father. Forgive me for missing the signals. Forgive me for missing the signs that you were showing me all along. Help me Lord. Reveal it to me, Father. In Jesus name.”

Since you were designed to do something particular now, and I was called in the ministry, let me tell you something. Your call- probably it's not ministry, could be, could be a lot of things. You may be called as a carpenter, you may be called as a plumber, you may be called as a businessman, you may be called as an accountant or an attorney.I don't know. I don't know is but I know this: it's inside of you. It's what you're created to do.

It's what you were designed to do. Therefore, is critical that you find it. You know, if you try to mow your yard with a- take the outboard motor off of your boat and try to mow your yard, well it's probably not going to work very well because an outboard motor was not designed to mow grass and if you try to push your boat with your lawnmower that's probably not going to work too well because a lawnmower wasn't designed to do that. It's critical that you find your design.

Now, I'm going to give you some practical ways, just some practical steps which I think can help you. Here's some questions that I want you to think about: what is it, and looking back in your life as far back as you can remember, when did you really feel satisfied or you're doing something and it felt like “this is me”? Do you know what I'm talking about? “This is me.” When I do this, I can say you know, “this is really me.This is me.” I feel alive I feel like I'm energized. This is me. This comes natural for me. What were you doing? Now it may not exactly be what God created you to do but it's going to be very similar or it may be symbolic even of what God created you to do, okay? 

For instance, maybe you're called as a, a leader of men and God has called you to to do something in leadership or organization. You look back in your childhood and you say “well, you know it was like I was always voted captain of the team, I was class president, you know, I was the one who was put in charge and so I was head of the the neighborhood homeowners association,” whatever. All this may be evidence of something that God's trying to show you so there are signs of your call throughout your life and so when you rewind and sort of look at your past like a motion picture and you see= you know this keeps happening to me- and whenever this happened or wherever I was doing this it just felt good. It felt right. It felt natural for me and that's because it's evidence of your call, and I want you to find this.

Now, it sounds easy but it's not because I believe and I have a lot of evidence to support this, that Satan schemes. I've talked a lot about schemes on my podcast. Satan schemes against you your entire life to keep you from your call. Satan will distract you, he will tempt you, he'll put you in the wrong relationship, he'll put you in the wrong city he'll, put you in the wrong church, he'll, I mean, he doesn't like forcibly put you, he helps you get into these things and get into these places where you don't need to be. He'll encourage a particular company to hire you in a job that you were not created to do.

For instance with me, I started working in sales and so whenever I wanted to move on to another job I was trapped because sales was all there was on my resume. I couldn't get out of it and I wanted out of it at one point because I was getting really frustrated with it but that's what was on my resume so that's the kind of jobs I kept getting.

So Paul said in the book of Corinthians that we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes and in Ephesians he said put on the full armor of God to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy. So Satan schemes against you to keep you from knowing your design from- keep you from knowing God's purpose. Why does he do that? Because your purpose and your design is going to do something to benefit the kingdom of God. You're going to do something that's going to influence, build or benefit the kingdom of God in some some way, some shape, form or fashion. 

If you're a Christian and you have a call of God on your life which, which we do and you're created for something. It's going to be for God's glory. You can be a CPA for God's glory, you can be an attorney for God's glory, and Satan does not want this to happen because it increases the kingdom of God and it decreases his kingdom so therefore he schemes against you. Another thing he does is he uses certain terrible, awful, horrendous weapons like rejection, betrayal, fear, anxiety, unworthiness, and here's the big one- and I've talked about it on multiple shows- illegitimacy. Illegitimacy. Are you really worthy? Do you really measure up? Do you really count? Are you important? Are you valuable? Do you matter? 

All these are messages that Satan wants to get across to you and he will send messengers to reinforce this message. And these messengers may be your own. I hate to say this but be, be good to me. It can be your own parents. They can be a sister or brother or a teacher or friend or fellow employee. Now, your mother or your father does not want to be a, you know, emissary or enforce a demonic message but people do this unintentionally. 

My scheme, and I believe most Christians have a scheme against them, my scheme that I struggled with for so many years was Ray, you do not matter. You don't count. You don't matter, you're not important. What you think is not important, what you feel is not important, what you want is not important, and so this message was reinforced my whole life. I mean, my parents sometimes would unintentionally reinforce that message. My employer would unintentionally reinforce that message. My coach would reinforce that message. That message kept being hammered at me over and over and over. I kept experiencing that wherever I'd go, you don't matter.

 Of course, you know once I become aware that I'm no longer, as Paul said, ignorant of Satan schemes- these schemes can be broken but the purpose of a scheme in my opinion is to keep you from your designed purpose. I hope you're tracking with me on this because this is important. Think about you that you're listening to me now, you know, maybe for a divine reason. What scheme- what, what is the, what scheme has been coming against you your whole life? And the way you can identify a scheme is it normally repeats itself over and over and over. Maybe it's fear, rejection, anxiety, abandonment, betrayal, whatever. It's been a consistent pattern in your life. Well, this is Satan. A scheme is a plan, it's a plot. 

But see, when you're aware of the enemy's strategy, you can easily defeat him because we have the blood of Christ, the authority of Jesus. We have the name above all names. We have the Holy Spirit of God living within us but we have to be aware. We're not ignorant of his schemes. We are aware of the scheme and we know, we know that we can submit to God and then- now we can resist the devil in an intelligent and effective way and he will flee from us, you get it? Know your scheme.

But back to your purpose. Now, know there's been things happening to keep you from your promised land. I think me working in business was part of a demonic scheme. I wasn't called into business, that wasn't my call, but the devil loved it when I worked in business. He kept me out of the ministry, kept me from giving prophetic words, kept me from laying hands on the sick, he kept me from casting out his demons because he had me in the wrong spot. It was wrong. It was the right spot for him, wrong spot for God.

So be aware of the scheme, you follow me? What are you called to do? What is natural for you? What, what are you good at? Maybe better than other people around you? That may not be the exact thing you're called to do but it is a sign of, it, it is symbolic of, it is evidence of what you're called to do, you know? What is it? Maybe it's something with your hands, maybe it's maybe it is your mind, but this thing makes you feel happy when you do it, makes you feel alive. It feels like whatever- let's say your name is Mary. 

Whenever you're doing this thing that God created you to do, and you're you're fulfilling your purpose you're in, that you feel like Mary to the max. I like that, Mary to the max. So what makes you Mary to the max. If you're, if it's- someone named John's listening to me, what makes you John to the max? What makes you Susan to the max? What makes you MIke to the max? What does that? 

Now God is faithful and it's never too late to answer your call and move out of God's permissive will and to what has created you to do. Now, God loves you and he's going to help you and he knows there's been schemes against you but sometimes we perish for a lack of knowledge. He knows, so God's will- it's never too late to get into what you're created to do to and when you do that, that's when you find joy and peace. You find the fruit of the spirit, you find abundance, you find overflow. It's what you're made to do. It's like you can't, you can't ask a wrench to be a hammer. You can't ask a, a saw to be a file. I mean, we have to be the right tool doing what the tool was created to do. You know, we're a tool in God's toolbox designed for a particular purpose and this is what we have to do. I mean, it's just the way we're going to find our peace. We're going to find our happiness and we find our joy.

I want this for you because it's not some of, it's kind of selfish, you know. When you find your call, it's going to help people around you. It's going to help your family, your wife, your kids, your employers, your employee, employers, whoever. It's going to help you, it's going to help other people around you. 

Another way to find your call is look what is not you, you know. What is it you have to force yourself to do? What is it you have to drag yourself out of bed in the morning to do? Well it's probably not your call because your call is not burdensome. Remember Jesus said, Jesus said “My yoke is easy, My burden is light”. I think it was vica versa my burden is light- My yoke is light,  My burden is easy, that's what he said and it's not hard but it's so important for your life, it's important for your happiness and your fulfillment. So when you look at what do you do well, what makes you feel fulfilled, and you're going back and maybe back to childhood, and what is it that you don't enjoy, what is it that's difficult for you, what is not your gift, okay? That's also helps you. You know what, what it is not helps you find what it is, okay? A wrong turn will help you find the right turn. A dead end will help you find a through street. 

So you can do this and um it's a good thing; and God is willing to help you. He's willing to help you overcome the obstacles. He's willing to help you find your created purpose and get out of that permissive will. See, God's permitting you if you're not in the will of God for your life. He loves you and he's gonna, He's gonna be there with you and do a lot of good things for you but there's much, much, much, more. Now, the moment you start saying- make this commitment- I'm going to get into my promised land; I'm going to find my, the reason I was created, you're going to get some resistance. So pray and proclaim.

 Prayer is petitioning God, proclamation is taking authority over the spirits of darkness and hindering spirits, and say you will not receive. “In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke every scheme against me. I rebuke every hindering spirit against me. I claim the name and power and authority of Jesus. Satan get out of my way. Leave me alone in the name of Jesus Christ, and my family, I'm going to fulfill my purpose. Get out of my way in the name of Jesus” and you're going to make it and you're going to get there and it's going to be good and it's going to be you; you to the max. That's maybe, we'll have close with that. You to the max.

So Lord Jesus, thank you for each person listening to the show and I pray Father, you will help them and assist the to find their created purpose. Help them discover the tool they were created to be in your master toolbox. Lord I know that this is important to you. I know, Father, you have a promised land for all of your believers. Help us to enter in and do it all for the glory of God. And Lord I thank you for each person listening to this show and I declare your favor, your blessing, your knowledge, and your divine purpose over everyone listening to this show in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you so much for listening today. I wish I could give you a hug but here comes up over the airway hug. Hugging now! Hug, hug, hug, love you much. Thank you for listening. God bless you.

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Thanks for listening to Self Talk with Dr Ray Self. Please go to my website if you would for the podcast. icmcollege.org/selftalk. One thing cool I want to talk to you about is we have hundreds of courses at International College of Ministry and we're beginning to make these courses available to you for only thirty five dollars. These are college level online seminary courses. This month's special course is called School of the Prophets. Do you have a prophetic gift? Do you think you may have a prophetic gift? Are you not sure if you have a prophetic gift? This will teach you about the gift of prophecy. How to flow in it, how to know if it's God, how to discern it, how to judge it. There's nothing more important than the gift of prophecy, according to Paul, of all the spiritual gifts so check out that and you can down- all you do is you make a 35 dollar donation and then I send you the course. It's a download and you get six one-hour lessons. Go to icmcollege.org/selftalk.

Give me a review, subscribe, follow all that good stuff, you know the drill. Appreciate you. Thank you so much for listening to Self Talk with Dr Ray Self. God bless you