The Plot Against Your Life

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, and welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. Very glad you're with me today. I've got a very important topic that you need to hear. You need to understand this because it does affect your life. As you know, there's two worlds. There's a natural world and there's a spirit world. The bible is very clear that we live in the natural world but we're being influenced by a spirit world. In the spirit world, there are numerous types of spirits. There's the Holy Spirit, the good guy, the Spirit of God, and there are other spirits which are, which are not good. So we're not to be ignorant of this and the Apostle Paul said the book of Corinthians, “so that we are not ignorant of satan's schemes.” Now, you've heard, if you followed my show, you've heard me talk about this before, but to be aware of demonic schemes is critical for your life. It's important for you, for your success, for your health, for your family, for your friends, it's a very important topic. It's so important that Paul said do not be ignorant of Satan's schemes, okay?

Then of course, in Ephesians 6, he said put on the full armor of God so we can battle against the schemes of the enemy. Well, what is a scheme? What is a scheme? A scheme is a plot, it's a plan. It's a plan against you. Now, you can say “well, I don't believe in all that,” well, this is the word of God. There is a plan against you. Why would there be a plan against you? Is it just because the devil is mean, which he is mean, is it because he's a liar, is it because he cannot speak the truth, is it because he comes to steal, kill and destroy? Yeah, all that's true, but the purpose of a scheme is because of God in you. Because you're chosen of God, because you are God's child, because you are God's vessel and God has a plan for your life. The key word I want you to understand here is the word plan. God's got a plan for you, okay?

The, the bible talks about that a lot, “before you were in your mama's womb, I knew you and I ordained you,” which is a plan for you, to something particular. “I know the plans I have for you.” God's got a plan for you. The plan that God has for you will build the kingdom of God. It'll have a positive effect on the kingdom of God. The plan God has for you is going to glorify Christ, it's going to benefit other people, and it's going to be, be for God.

Now, Satan does not attack God. He's not going to attack God, I mean, he cannot attack God, that’d be foolish. So the only thing he can do to have some sort of effect is to attack God's plan. God's plan, working through God's people, and this is the purpose of a scheme. Everyone has a purpose. Everyone has a call. I've done a number of shows about that. Everyone has a call, everyone has a purpose, everyone has what I call the promised land, you know, you've heard me talk about it, the Promised Land, that place you're called to be doing, that thing you're called to do, the place where you'll finally be happy and satisfied. If you're not in your promised land, please get my book, Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land. It's on amazon.com. Yeah, this is a promotion, but it's not, you know, I make very little money on these books. What it does do, it helps you overcome schemes of the enemy and find your promised land, where you've finally found peace.

So, have you ever noticed in your life this destructive patterns, things that seem to happen over and over and over again? And like, why? I cannot believe every time I turn around, I'm still faced with the same old thing. Let me explain this to you, um, a scheme typically is repeated. The bible says in Isaiah no weapon formed against you shall prosper. The first part of that scripture is weapons have been formed against you. So what Satan does, is he forms weapons designed for you. Now, I'm not here to glorify Satan, to get a whole lot of attention on Satan, all I'm doing is, the Apostle Paul said we should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes, okay? And we should put on the armor of God to battle against his scheme, so schemes are there. I've always said this about demons, I don't focus on them, I just deal with them so I can go ahead and focus on what God's called me to do.

A scheme is there to block you. A scheme is there to hurt you. A scheme is put in place to stop you from being or becoming all that god's called you to be, for the glory of God, for the kingdom of God, for Jesus Christ. What is a scheme? Well, it can be something as simple as rejection, or fear, or anxiety, or the big one, the big kahuna, excuse the expression, the scheme of illegitimacy. Now, these schemes repeat themselves throughout your life. For instance, I've seen people who've- I've known people who've had the scheme of rejection, and it seems like this person, when you talk to them and you counsel them, they'll tell you that it seems like their entire life they're constantly facing rejection. It might have come through a school teacher, through a coach, through a parent, through a friend, through a brother, through a sister, but it's like every time they turn around, they're being rejected by someone and they just don't understand “why me? What, what is it? Do I have a sign on my back that says hey, please reject me?” That's typical of a scheme. 

There's a scheme of illegitimacy. The scheme of illegitimacy is, is do you really matter? Are you really important? You better prove yourself, you better do something to show your value and to prove your worth. And people with the scheme of illegitimacy spend their entire life trying to perform, to show that they are valuable because underneath it all, there is a scheme that says you don't really matter, you don't really measure up therefore, you better prove that you're legitimate because underneath it all, you're illegitimate. And this feeling, this message, repeats itself. You can see this message in early childhood, throughout your teenage years into your adult years. The scheme of illegitimacy for instance, is probably the number one scheme that I have seen operating against Christian leaders. I cannot tell you how many pastors that I have talked to over the years that will tell me underneath the surface, there's this little voice that causes them to question themselves. “Are you really a good preacher? Are you really anointed for this call? Are you really making a difference?” It's just a voice that wants to make you feel illegitimate and then react to that by trying to prove your value in earth. 

And you've heard me teach this before, but when Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, what did the devil do? The devil tried to tempt Jesus with the spirit of illegitimacy. He said to Jesus, “if you be the Son of God, turn these stones into bread. If you be Son of God, throw yourself down from this temple.” Other words, “are you sure you're the Son of God? How sure are you? You need to prove it.” This spirit of illegitimacy is a scheme that has been, I mean, it's huge, it's huge, um, it's…You'll see it in men especially, that have this ability- or this drive, not really ability- but this compulsion to prove their worth. Sometimes they'll do it through competitive sports, through money, through positions. I see the scheme of illegitimacy in the church, where people are hungry for position. “I have to have a title, I have to be a, have a position,” you know, “I must have a position because that legitimizes me.”

You see, our legitimacy comes by the fact that we're children of the Most High God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ, but the spirit of illegitimacy is a scheme to make you feel illegitimate underneath the surface, or not really valuable or not actually measuring up, that is a scheme. And it repeats itself over and over and over and over.

Fear is another scheme where, it's just, there's something cut- my mother suffered this a lot, I mean, it was like she, she was constantly afraid of something and it, this the spirit tormented her her whole life, and constantly afraid of the future, afraid of the what-ifs, afraid that this may, might happen or that might happen. I remember it so, so well. I had a scheme against me. My scheme was Ray, you're invisible, you really don't matter, you're not seen, you, you really, you don't count. And that scheme would repeat itself throughout my life. I literally felt invisible and not important at all. Other people were important, other people mattered, other people counted, but I didn't. And Satan would use all kinds of methods to enforce this. It was amazing how many ways he could enforce this message in my life. It could be ignored on a, on a, not picked for a team, it could be um, literally being not chosen in your classroom, it could be overlooked, ignored, treated like you're, you're not even there. And this message would repeat itself through teachers, through coaches, through family members, through jobs, just overlooked. I remember, you know, do not matter. I remember I worked a job after uh, college and um, you know, I was, well, I was actually, and it's a long story. I worked just kind of a menial job so to speak, at a department store and I was uh, my job was to unload trucks and to move merchandise, and I worked extremely hard. I was a very dedicated worker. Then one day, they hired, after I’d been there a few months, they hired a friend of mine who could come in to help unload trucks. I trained him on how to do his job and he was a good worker but he didn't work nearly as hard as I did, I mean, I was very diligent, did more than expected, and all of a sudden one day, my friend got promoted. And I didn't, like, I'm not even there. Like all this work and all that I did, I was completely overlooked. That type of message, being overlooked, being invisible, repeated itself.

I could tell you story after story after story after story of being invisible and not mattering. Why would Satan put a scheme like that against Ray Self? And the truth is that I do matter, and God had a plan for my life and something that was important. I was called to be a, a pastor, a minister, a prophet, a teacher. This is the call of God upon my life and it matters. But the feeling that I did not matter affected me my entire life. As a matter of fact, I spent much of my life, over 25 years in business, trying to prove that I mattered by making money and being successful in business and never really could get there. It was like the carrot on a stick. A price I never could get. So what I'm saying is, in your life, hear me, you might look back and go wow, this same problem has plagued me over and over and over. Maybe it's anxiety, fear, abandonment, illegitimacy, you do not matter. Whatever it is, it's not hard to identify a scheme because it seems to just supernaturally or strangely repeat itself. The message, the feeling keeps coming up over and over and over again through various circumstances, through various methods, and this is critical because once you recognize a scheme, whatever that scheme is, you can take authority. You have the authority of Jesus Christ, you have his power, you have his anointing, you have the power of the name above all names, the name of Jesus Christ. 

So Paul said be not ignorant of satan's schemes. So when I see a scheme operating, maybe it's the illegitimacy scheme or, or fear or abandonment or, I do not matter, and I know the source of this scheme, I literally can take a stand. With me, it'll be something like in the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke this demonic spirit, you evil spirit, this scheme that is saying I do not matter. I rebuke you, I renounce it, I renounce you at its source, I cut it off by the blood and the authority and the power of Jesus Christ, and I command this scheme to stop. You see, you have to know the plans of Satan to stand against him. This is what Paul was trying to tell us in Corinthians and Ephesians. Understand what the devil is doing. If you know what the enemy is doing, you can defeat him. You can stand against him and defeat him. Would- every, every military commander in history would love to know what your enemy is up to because if you know what your enemy’s up to, you can counter him and defeat him. Throughout history, there were spies and military intelligence and, and the armies would go to great extent just to see and determine what their enemy is up to so they could have a victory over that enemy. Well, it's the same thing with the devil. I don't want to focus on him, I want to focus on the kingdom of God, on Jesus, on the Holy Spirit, but I also don't want to be foolish

You know, these destructive patterns, they're not only hurting you but they're hurting your purpose, your call, your health, your, your happiness. Be aware of these things and what's, what's cool about it, if there is anything cool about it, when I see a scheme operating against a person -for instance, a scheme of fear- the truth is underneath it all, that person is called to be a very brave and bold individual, so Satan sees that and he hits them with fear. The scheme of you don't matter, you're unworthy, you're unacceptable, usually hits people who are called to do great things, who are called as leaders. The scheme of illegitimacy, are you sure you're worthy, is called, the people, who are called to do amazing things. Because I mean, you'll see the scheme of illegitimacy hit a pastor of a mega church called to do great things in the kingdom of God, and here he's got this little voice always getting him to question himself.

You see, these schemes are evil and we have authority over evil. God's not going to do something for us that he's told us to do, and what has he told us to do, he's told us to submit to him, resist the devil, and he will flee from us. We have been commanded to resist the devil. We pray and we ask God to stop the devil, but God says I've given you authority over snakes and scorpions and all the works of the enemy. I said for you, as a Christian, these signs will follow you as a believer, you will cast out demons. He didn't, God didn't say ask me and I will cast out the demons, he says no, I've given you authority to cast out demons. We have authority to do this, and God expects us to use that authority, okay? So don't ask God to do something he's already told you to do.

And it's the same with our kids, you know. When I ask my kids to do something, I expect him to do it. I'm not going to do it for them because I told them to do it. Well, God's not going to do things for us, he's already commanded us to do, and that also means resisting the devil. He also commanded us do not be ignorant of the devil's schemes. Why is this so big? Because these schemes are hurting people. They're keeping people from being what God's created them to be. It's, there, these are roadblocks. These schemes are mountains, these schemes are obstacles that need to be overcome, you know, for you- not only for you, but for the people around you and the people that have been assigned to you.

So as Paul said, we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes, and there's many, many, many schemes. Again, how do you determine what the scheme is against your life is you just look at the message. What is the negative core belief that has tried to hit you as long as you can remember? And you know, it's not from God and if this message has come to you and hit you in all kinds of ways, and it keeps getting reinforced and reaffirmed, that's a scheme and it's time to say no. No more. I will not accept this scheme any longer.

I want to pray for you and also want to encourage you, please, uh, subscribe, review, follow this podcast. That really, really helps. Check out, you can go to my podcast site and that's, you, you go to my… icmcollege.org/selftalk. Now, icmcollege.org is my college website, International College of Ministry, but the direct link to the podcast where you can see all the episodes is icmcollege.org/self talk. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for each person listening to the sound of my voice. Father, you said that no weapon formed against us shall prosper. Father, I lift up everyone listening to me and Father, I ask you let the Holy Spirit come. Holy Spirit, come and, and help them to know and be aware of what you need them to know about these schemes of the enemy, Father. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we submit to you and we resist these schemes, Father, whatever the scheme is, Father, against my listeners. Father, I stand with them and I rebuke it. I renounce it and I command the schemes of the enemy to stop. But Father, give every listener listening to my voice the power, the anointing, and the courage to rebuke these schemes and refuse to allow these schemes to operate anymore in their life or the lives of those around them. Their family, their friends, their spouse. Father, I praise you that you've given us authority, you've given us power, and most of all, Lord, you chose us. You died on the cross for us, you rose on the third day for us, Father, you filled us with your Holy Spirit, you made us temples of God. You made us joint heirs with Jesus Christ. So Father, we praise you, we thank you. Lord, I declare a blessing and favor and honor on each person listening to this podcast, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen, amen. Well, thank you for listening today. 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.org. Thanks again for listening, we appreciate you.