The Invisible Child of God

Hello, welcome to Self Talk. I'm Dr. Ray Self, your host. What is this show about? It's about getting free. Getting free from what, you may ask. It's getting free from anything that keeps you away from God's plan for your life. Anything that hurts you or suppresses you or causes you harm. That's my heart, that's my passion. I want to see you free, I want to see you living your God-given dream, I want to see you being the person God created you to be. Stay tuned for our next exciting topic. Thank you for joining us today, God bless you.

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Hello, and welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. Glad you're with me today, or this evening, or whatever time you're listening to the show. I want to give a shout-out and thanks again to Dr. Jess Youngblood who made this podcast possible. He is the main doctor over Premier Family Care that's down in uh, Gunnersville, Alabama, Bluntsville, Alabama, and Arab, Alabama. If you need healthcare you're in North Alabama, you need to see Jess Youngblood, he is the best Holy Spirit-filled doctor.

So I want to talk to you today about the invisible child of God. I want to read a scripture to you and talk about how this applies to you and you know, sometimes being a Christian is not easy. In Romans chapter 1, verse 20, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes,” He's– “His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what was made, so they are without excuse,” First Corinthians 1:15, “He is the image of the invisible God,” First Timothy 1:17, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God…” So the bible talks a lot about God being invisible although God is very evident. And you know what folks? Unfortunately, or fortunately, depends on how you want to look at it,  we'll talk about that, you too can be completely invisible. You see, the Holy Spirit, when He comes upon you and you get filled with the Holy Spirit, something changes dramatically within you and you become a different person.

When I was baptized with the Holy Spirit around 1986 or so, my life changed dramatically. The way I, the way I saw things, the way I viewed things, the way I understood the word of God. Spiritual gifts, the prophetic, everything just changed. Incredible, incredible change in my life when I got filled with the Holy Spirit. If you're listening to this podcast and you have never been baptized with the Holy Spirit, please do not hesitate ask the Lord for that. Have an elder of the church or a pastor lay hands on you for that but do not neglect to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, it's an incredible life-changing forever experience. But for us Christians, for we Christians who have the Holy Spirit in us, this Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit - He's a person by the way, He’s not a it - the Holy Spirit of God, He, He, He changes us but He also can make us invisible to worldly people. He can make us not seen. Now I don't know if that's God's intention or not, but what I have noticed is that when I am around Christians or worldly people who do not have the Holy Spirit - now it sounds like, well how could that be? A Christian without the Holy Spirit? I'm talking about people who've been saved, born again, and that is a work of the Holy Spirit - and I’m not going get into a big theological discussion here - it is incredible, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit to be saved, amen? There's another work of the Holy Spirit what the bible talks about in Acts 1 and Acts 19 and Acts chapter 8 called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but regardless of that, when you have the Holy Spirit in you, unfortunately, people without the Holy Spirit cannot always see who you are. They cannot see the truth. There is a conflict between who you are and who they are without any words being said or anything being known.

So what I want to talk about is called the invisible child of God, and to be invisible is very painful. If you're like me, I love when somebody gets me. I love it when somebody understands who I am, um, it just– it feels good when somebody could actually understand where I'm coming from, who I am, have an appreciation of that and that you know, forms a great relationship. And then, the other person. We need to be able to get each other, to understand each other, to be able to see each other through the eyes of God and it's a wonderful, beautiful thing. Now I've noticed when I'm around Spirit-filled Christians - and I'm very blessed to do a lot of traveling, I speak at churches around the country, I just got back from a trip to North Carolina speaking up there, I'm going to be in Baton Rouge before too long and let’s see, I'm going to be in Troy, Missouri this next week, very blessed to do that. And then I– I'm around Spirit-filled Christians and they really, they know who I am. They can see the Spirit of God in me and the Spirit of God working through me and there's an appreciation and understanding and it really feels good. But during the holidays, and it could be other family functions, when I'm around some family members and some friends and some acquaintances, I'm absolutely invisible to them. They cannot see who I am and it's, it feels sometimes awkward.

Um, I've maybe mentioned this before but in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, we used to have very large Thanksgiving dinners with– we invite all kinds of people over and um, be a mixture of people. Families, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, uh, friends of nephews, friends of family, all kinds of folks. And I remember sitting there and I'm trying to communicate with people, I'm trying to share a little bit. Say, “Hey, how you doing?” You know? “What's going on? Tell me about yourself and then I will share a little bit about myself.” But I noticed this thing that would happen: whenever I begin to share about myself, I would just kind of get a blank stare or they would just change the subject. They wouldn't get it because see, what really floats my boat is what God does. It's, it's the Holy Spirit. It's seeing– it's laying hands on someone and right before your eyes, see them get healed. It's giving a prophetic word to a person and them coming back to you and said, “You know, Dr. Self, that word you gave me, it came true and it changed my life.” 

I remember prophesying to a couple that um, that they would have a child and it was a distressing prophecy to them because they had just had a miscarriage and so the thought of having a child was just kind of distressing to them, but I didn't know they had just had a miscarriage. But I prophesied a child and they got a little upset with that word but then I saw them a year and a half later and they introduced me to their child. These things are just incredible. I remember taking some students, you know, I’m president of International College of Ministry, I always brag on my college. I remember taking– when I traveled, I had a habit for years where I would take my students with me, our group of students, and we were at this church, actually in the southern part of Memphis, Tennessee, and a couple of my students laid hands on a lady. I had a word of knowledge that there was a woman in the church that was blind, I believe it was in her right eye, couldn't see out of her right eye, and I really felt the Lord saying He was going to heal this person. It was, it was, it was a powerful word I mean, it was something that as soon as I said it, is one of these things where I said this word and then I thought, “Oh man, I can't believe I actually just said that. Oh, Lord, help me.”

And this elderly woman walked up kind of in a very meek shy manner. She walked up to the front of the church and I was still speaking and a couple of my students began to pray for her and um, the church was very conservative and pretty laid back and not too many people were responding to my altar call but it was still you know, great people. And all of a sudden, I heard one of my students - her name was Patricia, I'll never forget this, go, “There it is! There it is!” I'm thinking, “There what is?” “The eye! The eye! The eye!” And all of a sudden, this little lady screams, “I can see! I can see!” And I'll never forget, she jumped up in the air, and she's an elderly woman, and she jumped straight up. And this– the strangest thing was, I'll never forget this, when she jumped up, her shoes remained on the ground. Then she began to run around the church. I can see, I can see and then the altar filled up with people desiring to, to recommit to Christ and to be prayed for and it was just such an incredible story, you know? 

And I wanted to share things like this with people that I love and I care about and the moment I begin to share a story like this, they will either get distracted, change the subject or if I can finally, if I can get the whole story out, they will just look at me with a blank stare. They'd rather talk about the football game or what went on at work. They just, they have no interest. They don't, they can't see or appreciate the things of God that have worked through me. And you know, I just want them to see the reality of God and who I am, you know? They'll see me as Ray, you know, Uncle Ray, or my brother, Ray, or my, my cousin, Ray, but they don't recognize me as a, or understand that I'm a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit will use me to perform the miraculous. Now it's not me, it's the Holy Spirit working through me, but it's incredible stories. And when I'm with my family and friends, sometimes I just want to share the incredible stories of God's glory but in the moment I begin to share, again I get this blank stare and I could tell they don't even want to hear it. Now, if I've asked them, “Well, how, how's it going with you?” They'll tell me all about their job, they'll tell me about what they've been up to, but almost invariably they will never ask me, “Hey, tell me about your ministry, tell me what's going on with you, tell me about ICM, tell me about your podcast, tell me about it.” They don't, they– 

You see, even though I love family and friends, many of them are still of the world and so you have to have the Holy Spirit to get the Holy Spirit. But I call this being the invisible child of God. The invisible child of God. It takes the Holy Spirit to see the Holy Spirit, it takes the Holy Spirit to recognize the Holy Spirit, it takes the Holy Spirit to open up the eyes, to open up our eyes. The, the unbeliever not only cannot see what's going on in God's creation and, and the things of God, they have no interest in it. And as a human being and just a normal guy, this is painful, it hurts me. It hurts me for several reasons, number one, I really want to have a relationship with my family and my friends - that's not all of my family but you know what I'm saying because you know some people like this. I want to have a relationship, I want to, I want, I want to be able to share the incredible things of God because when you talk to Ray Self, if you want to know me, you got gotta know what I do and the things I've experienced and the things that float my boat and the things that– of God that are so incredible, so amazing. But you know, I know so many people, they want to talk about football - you know I love, I love football, I'm a sports guy - but they want to talk about football, they want to talk about their job and they want to talk about things but they don't want to talk about the incredible things of God. And I could share story after story after story of the glory of God, the things that I've seen and I want people to get it. I want people to see it. 

But you see, one of the schemes of the devil is to keep people like me– and like you, you listening to me, invisible. That's why I'm calling this show The Invisible Child of God. You remember I've talked about this on a previous show, you remember the story when Jesus goes back to His hometown of Nazareth and they looked at Him and “Oh yeah, we know this guy, this is uh, Mary and Joseph's son. We know his brothers and

sisters, this is the carpenter's son.” Make a long story short, Jesus could do nothing there because of their unbelief. He was invisible to them. You think about, it the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Jesus the Son of God, was standing in their midst in Nazareth but they couldn't see who He was and they missed out on a great blessing. And I think that's my heart. I want my friends, I want all of my family, my in-laws, my, my children, my grandchildren, I want them to see me for who I am. Not that I'm anything great or special but to see God, to see God. How God has used me, how God has worked through me because I know if they could just see it and understand it and get it, their life could be changed forever.

Now uh, when I'm talking– I'm around other Holy Spirit-filled Christians, they get me in a heartbeat and we can share stories back and forth of the glory and the miracles of God. I go to a lot of pastors conferences and it's so much fun talking to pastors and sharing the experiences of God, the things, the miracles they've seen, and the incredible things, and also sometimes it's the hilarious stuff that we see because Lord knows we see some hilarious stuff in churches. Um, there really is some funny stuff, and don't get me started on that because I can get really corny, but I'm not invisible to these pastors. They get me, I get them because I have the Holy Spirit, they have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is able to recognize the Holy Spirit in another person so the Holy Spirit gets the Holy Spirit. When you get baptized with the Holy Spirit, you, you become transformed. You know, salvation is a new creation but baptism of the Holy Spirit is a powerful new creation. “You shall receive power when the Holy Ghost has come upon you and then you shall be My witness.” “You shall receive power.” So these Spirit-filled Christians can see another Spirit-filled Christian and can get them and that's why with me– and I love my family, I love my friends, but I'm really more comfortable around other– when I'm in a Spirit-filled church or around other Spirit-filled pastors or ministers or prophets or apostles I mean, it's just– it feels– it just feels right and I am visible to them and they are visible to me and we get each other but as human beings, everybody wants to be understood. Everybody wants to, to get it. I mean, people that have impacted me the most in my life are people who, who get Ray. They get me, they understand me. They understand where I'm coming from, they understand who I am and the people that– there's so many people that I love and I care about, and I want them, I want them to understand me but, but they don't, they just don't, don't get it.

Um, let's pause here for just a little break. International College of Ministry is a Holy Spirit-filled, accredited online seminary. Study anytime, anywhere. Listen to this testimony from Ruth of Biloxi, Mississippi.

Ruth: I was so excited to learn about ICM College, Spirit-filled college and I also love that it was online, work at your pace. We've been through several seasons in our life where we've had to back off a little bit and then were easily able to pick it back up, and just being able to learn and grow in the Lord and how the Holy Spirit moves not only in us but in our life, in our church. And as marriage and family pastors, my husband and I as we’e both students, we, we have just grown and learned how to impact those families in a, in a much deeper level and can't tell you how great it would be… just sign up.

Dr. Ray continues: When the Lord calls you it's like a telephone that rings 24 hours a day non-stop until you finally answer it. It's time to get equipped for your call. Go to icmcollege.org, icmcollege.org. Hit the apply button, fill out your application, and in the comments section of your application if you mention this podcast, I'll give you 10% off your tuition. Study anytime, anywhere. Get equipped, get that degree, icmcollege.org.

Dr. Ray: Okay, I'm back, I'm back. That was a little infomercial. You know, if you're listening to me, I think many of you are most likely have been hurt because you have felt rejected, you have felt put down or maybe more than rejected. Sometimes it's just to feel invisible, to feel unrecognizable, to feel like you don't matter, you don't fit in, you don't, you don't count, you're not important to people around you who say that they love you. And this can be because of the Holy Spirit in you and the lack of the Holy Spirit in them. Uh, you know, and I don't believe this is God's will, I believe it's God's will for everybody to be filled with the Spirit of God. And so we have to experience the pain sometimes and the, the feeling of rejection that we get from those closest to us and if you think about it, Jesus went through the same thing. Imagine the rejection He felt when He goes back home to Nazareth and people are unable to see him other than what He was years ago. You see, years ago in Nazareth, Jesus played a role. His role was to be the carpenter's son, that was His identity. But you see, Jesus, that was not His true identity. That was what he did but Jesus got baptized, He got filled with the Holy Spirit, He was a Son of God, He was a king of kings, the Lord of Lords. That was His true identity. But all they could see was His identity as a young man.

Many times in your family – hear me carefully – now, you are assigned a role to play and you play this role your whole life, whatever the role is. Uh, you know, I've talked about the different roles that children play. Sometimes there's the hero child, the clown, the scapegoat child, um, the invisible child, but you are assigned a role to play. It's sort of unspoken, this is the part you play. All of a sudden, you get saved, you get filled with the Holy Spirit, you become another person and your family cannot see the new person you are because all they believe you are is the role that they assigned to you your entire life, the role you were supposed to play in the family. And all of a sudden, you don't play that role anymore so therefore, you are invisible to them. I hope this makes sense to you. I'm not trying to, to overcomplicate it. Now, if you watch your mind and watch what you're thinking… I fell into the trap when I would be around people that I cared about and I could tell they had no idea who I was and they had no interest in who I was. They had no desire to even know who I was or even cared about me, who I really was, this Spirit-filled Christian. It hurt, it was painful, I didn't like it. But when I could step back and go, you know what? I need to have compassion and pray for my family that the Holy Spirit would fall upon them, that every member of my family, all my friends and uncles and cousins, and that they would all be filled with the Holy Spirit. And not take it personally but pray for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and know that the reason they're unable to see me, that I am invisible to them is that I have been called out of this world. Jesus made it very clear we are not of this world, okay? We have been born again, we are different people. Just like the Apostle Peter who went from a fisherman to a chief apostle. He, he changed and they, you know, I'm sure when he would go back to his fishing boat they had no idea who he was either. And yeah, this hurts, when people don't recognize you, people don't value you, people don't really want to understand you or get you. But it's the same thing that Jesus experienced and He warned us that this would happen.

So how do we respond? We respond– first off, understand that they cannot see you because they don't have the Holy Spirit like you do. Secondly, have empathy for them, compassion for them, and then pray. “Lord, I pray for the salvation and the feeling of the Holy Spirit for all of my family, for my friends, for everyone I'm around. Lord, open up their eyes. Lord, You said that the god of this world has blinded the eyes of the unbelieving so Lord, I pray that their eyes will be open not only to see me, Lord, but to see You, Lord. To see Your hope, to see Your glory, to see Your salvation.” And that's how we need to respond.

I hope this has made sense to you. I know if you are a Spirit-filled Christian listening to me, I know you've experienced the pain of being invisible to people you care about but you know what, we can have compassion for them, empathy for them, and pray for them. Not only will that help them, but it will also help you and get that burden off of you and relieve the pain that you've experienced by being invisible to those you care about. Amen. This is Dr. Ray Self, I hope this show has been a blessing to you. Please check out my website, icmcollege.org. You might want to enroll or get a free evaluation. I got a couple of great books out, Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land on Amazon, Hear His Voice Be His Voice on Amazon. I got a cool special where um, you know, I have hundreds of college courses that I've taught and so I'm offering each week a college course, a six-week course, it's a, it's a, you see a video window, you have notes and everything, for 35 dollars, okay? You follow the instructions in the course description, in the podcast, description and I will get that course to you. Amen. I appreciate you very much. This is Dr. Ray Self and I pray that their eyes, of those we care about, the Lord will open up all their eyes and Your glory in us would not be invisible, Father. In Jesus’ name I pray. This is Dr. Ray Self. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you, God bless you.

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