The Spirit World Impacts Your Life

Hey, it's hard to believe that this is my 181st episode of Self Talk and I pray and I hope that this podcast has been a blessing to you. Uh, but also hope that you would share it with those you know around you. I just want to…I just want to bless people, I want to minister to people, I want to give people God's truth and things that can impact your life in a positive way. I appreciate you listening to today's show. Uh, it's going to be a critical show about the spirit world, it's one that you really need to hear. Um, again, I'm also very excited, I just finished my third book, it is called The Call: God Called You, You Answered, This is What You Need to Know, and if you would like an autographed copy - and I also try to put prophetic words when I autograph a book - if you make a donation, um, to our scholarship fund through…go to icmcollege.org/donate, that's our website, donate. Donate $15 or more to our scholarship fund and put in the comments your address I will autograph a copy and put a word of encouragement in there to you and ship it to you. Anyway, just offering that to you. Uh, I hope you enjoy today's show and I hope it changes your life in a positive way. God bless you.

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Okay, here we go. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time with you. I pray that your Holy Spirit will speak through me and um, and speak to each person listening to this show. Father, I just pray for your wisdom, for your anointing, and um, let your words come out of my mouth to the best of my ability, Father. And Lord, we just give you praise and honor in Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. 

What I want to talk to you about today is the spirit world. There is a spirit world, folks, there is a spirit realm where the Holy Spirit resides and also there's a spirit realm where demons reside; in this spirit realm, ther're also angels. And this realm is affecting you. It's affecting you every day. It’s having an impact on your life every day, whether you want to believe it or not, it's, it's the truth, okay? In First Corinthians 2:14, the Apostle Paul is writing and he says, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God,” so what he's saying is, you know, just being natural, um, we just are not going to receive things of the Spirit of the Lord. Let's just look at it in context. So, “...natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” So the things of the Lord are spiritually discerned, okay? So that tells me that there is a spirit realm and…and God's there, with His– with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And for us to know this, amen, we have to have discernment, spiritual discernment. And a natural person thinks this is crazy, this is foolishness to them but those that are of God, uh, Christians, saved Christians, should be able to discern the spirit world because that's where God is and it's a very critical place. 

So the Apostle Paul writes in Romans– gives us a warning and, and some consequences. In Romans 8: 5-6, Paul says, “For those who are according to the flesh,” now that's our natural person, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh,” Now, what he's saying is that's just being natural, we're just being natural, we're thinking normal, natural everyday things. Things that we can see, taste, and smell, okay? And we, we set our mind on that. “…but those who are according to the Spirit,” which should be all Christians, the things– “...set their mind on the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” So this spirit realm, if we learn how to discern it and focus on it, can bring us life and peace but if we keep living and thinking naturally, Paul says it's death. There's, there's a deadness to it. We are spiritual beings. We have– if you're a Christian and you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit within you and so, to focus on the Holy Spirit, to try to hear Him, discern Him, be aware of His presence, be aware of His influence, be aware of what He's leading and what He's saying will lead you to a life of peace, okay? But if we fail to do that and just live a natural life being unaware of the supernatural all around us, the result is death. There's a deadness with it. 

Now, in the spirit realm there also are demons, okay? Now, these demons do try to influence us, they try to discourage us, they try to bring shame and guilt and condemnation on us, they try to do everything that is the opposite of what Christ has accomplished. When Christ went to the cross, He took shame, He took guilt, He took condemnation upon His body, He took disease upon His body, He took our rejection upon Himself. So all the things that Christ did, demons will try to do the exact opposite and put it back on you. If you're not aware of this and you're not discerning this, you'll buy into this, and I have seen this so many times. I have seen Christians just walking around in condemnation, walking around in fear, walking around with guilt and shame. And I know that's coming from two sources, either they're doing it to themselves or they're doing it to themselves in cooperation with the spirit realm of demons, okay? Where the demons are. Demons will try to influence you, they will try to discourage you, shame you, they'll, they'll, they'll try to cause everything to go bad in your life, they'll, they'll put evil thoughts in your mind, discouraging thoughts in your mind. 

But when you learn to discern the spirit realm and to discern the Holy Spirit, the blessings are there. You can be– Paul said also to be led by the Holy Spirit, “those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God.” So we learn how to discern the spirit realm, especially God in the spirit realm, then, a whole world opens up to us of abundance and peace and prosperity and healing because you see, God wants what is best for us and He will lead us into things that are great for us. And you know, peace and satisfaction and wisdom and healing and all these things are available in the spirit realm which we as Christians, okay, have to spiritually discern okay? The things of God in 1 Corinthians 21:14 are spiritually discerned. People in the world cannot do this even though the spirits, the demons are influencing people in the world all the time. Demons are impacting the world, you can see this in our society, in our culture. Demons are impacting our government, demons are impacting America, and they're, they're unaware of it. You know, you– you'll see these supernaturally evil things and we blame them on gun control…well, it's not, it's demons. It's demons controlling and influencing people. When a, when a, a guy walks into a school and starts shooting people, I guarantee you there's a demonic realm to that, okay?

Now, we have the Spirit of God, we have the Holy Spirit in us, we have incredible promises. Jesus said we are not of this world. Now, since we are spiritual beings with the Holy Spirit, if we become aware of the spirit realm, especially the Holy Spirit, a whole another incredible life opens up to us. To be unaware of that is just foolish and not to pay attention to the spirit realm is foolish. Now, in the spirit realm, you have the Holy Spirit and you also have demons that are trying to influence you. But I'm– me, I'm not perfect in– you– in my ways by far, but I'm aware of this and I, I say– I know when demons are trying to get between me and my wife, I know when demons are trying to affect my ministry and affect my health. I, I see things that are going wrong that I cannot explain and all of a sudden, I go, “wait a minute, something's wrong here, something's not right here. What is happening to me?” and then all of a sudden, I realize I've got a demonic attack and I'll do spiritual warfare and I say, “Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I thank you, Father, that Jesus has given us authority over snakes and scorpions and all the work of the enemy. So, Father, I take that authority in the name of Jesus Christ and I rebuke this attack, this demonic attack, these demonic plans and schemes against me, against my wife, against my family. I rebuke this in the name of Jesus Christ and I command it to stop now.” That's that's warfare. 

So warfare is using the authority that you have been given to stop the bad part of the spirit realm from attacking you and your family and your finances and your health and so many things that, that these demons will do. The good news is you can be aware of the spirit realm and aware of the greatness of God, the glory of God, the incredible things that God has for you, the, the the promise in Ephesians, God will do exceedingly and abundantly more than you can ever think or ask for because you– and you, you have to discern, this discern this, be aware of this spiritually. Spiritually. And you know, you might say, “Well, how do I do this practically?” Well, you practice it. Pay attention to those gut feelings, pay attention to those uh, ideas that seem to come out of nowhere, thoughts that come out of nowhere. Remember, God's thoughts are not yours, His ways are not your ways, they're higher than us. So when I get these thoughts and Impressions that come out of nowhere, I realize many times that's God, that's the Holy Spirit because it’s nothing I would think of. Sometimes it's just a feeling that something's not right. It's a, it's a feeling and it's, that's, that's my spirit being grieved. You know, the Holy Spirit in me Is warning me, beware, beware, beware, and I learned to pay attention to this. To ignore all these signs and feelings and Impressions, to ignore it's just crazy foolish. 

Now, don't be fearful but be aware of the spirit realm. Remember, that's where God is, so that's the good news and, and demons…you know, they're in this realm too but we have authority and we've been given power over this demonic influence but you have to exercise the authority that's been given you. And then look at your life. You know, don't, don't invite them in by your actions, don't invite them in by sin, don't invite them in by, by doing things that make them feel welcome. And the big one which I, I preach constantly is, if you're involved in anything spiritual that has a spiritual context to it that's not of the Holy Spirit, of Jesus Christ, it's evil. God hates it. God's a jealous God, especially when we go after other gods. And sometimes Christians do this inadvertently, like things like yoga which is Hindu worship. “Oh, it's a great exercise.” Yeah, it's a good exercise, but it's also Hindu worship. It's like, it's…yoga means Union with God. Union with Hindu gods. They're trying to get you to, to meditate and chant and, and enlighten yourself, get this spirit of Kundalai to come out of your spine and enlighten your mind. It's evil. It's evil. Don't do it. Don't do it. “Well, I'm just exercising.” Well, yeah, you're exercising, you're practicing Hinduism, don't do it. That's just all I'm gonna say about that, look it up for yourself. Um, so we have a spirit realm that impacts our life and that's good news when you tune in to God who is a spirit. Remember, the things of God are spiritually discerned, that's what Paul tells us. When we set our mind on the Spirit of the Lord, we have peace, when our mind is not set on the Spirit of the Lord, things begin to die. 

Maybe you're having a dead feeling in your life right now, maybe you're feeling lifeless. Probably that means you're just, you're living natural and you're ignoring the supernatural. And the supernatural, that's where God is. That's where God has abundance and peace and prosperity and healing and, and, and love, oh my goodness, the love of the Father. Experiencing God is incredible and you can do this, you can, you can discipline yourself to tune in to the things of the spirit. Resist the devil and he will flee from you but submit to God in the spirit realm and you've got peace and life and so many benefits. But what I want you to understand is never forget that there's another realm beyond the natural realm that is influencing your life every day. Be aware of it. And it's a good news, bad news. Good news, it– much of it is God. Bad news, some of it's demonic. Discern the difference which is not hard, not hard to do. Good news is you've got authority and if you're a Christian, you have the name of Jesus Christ, you have authority. “These signs shall follow those that believe in My name: they will cast out demons…” You've been given authority to get rid of demons. So I used to say it sounds kind of weird that when you discover that a problem is demonic, it's kind of good news because you can get rid of it. Now, I have trouble getting rid of my flesh because I have all kinds of bad habits that I have trouble breaking, but I can break a demon in a heartbeat through the name and the power and the authority of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I can't change myself, but I can sure get rid of a demon, amen. But in the spirit realm is our God and we discern Him because God is a spirit and He wants to influence us, guide us into great things, give us exceedingly abundantly more than we can ever think or ask for, that's the good news, amen. So be aware of the spirit realm, amen. Amen. 

I hope this show…ha,ha,ha, I hope this show has been a blessing to you, not, not too, not too heavy, but uh, maybe, maybe life-changing? In some way or another? Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for every person listening to the show. I ask for your Holy Spirit to touch right now. And Father, I pray that there's no condemnation for it, there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. So Father, if anybody's feeling condemned by this podcast, that's not you and that was not my intention so we, we don't receive condemnation but maybe we're convicted, Lord, and a conviction can come from the Holy Spirit, so, Lord, forgive us for not tuning in to you more. Help us, Father, to learn to constantly tune in to your realm because you are a spirit. And, Father, help us to know what's of you, where you're leading us, and what is not of you, Father. Lord, bless everyone, everyone right now that's listening to the show, touch them, Holy Spirit, touch them, Holy Spirit, right now. Let your anointing fall, let them feel your presence right now, Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, touch, Father, touch everyone listening to the sound of my voice, Father. We thank you Jesus, we praise you, Jesus, in your Holy Name, the name of Jesus, name above all names, Father. We thank you, Lord, we thank you. Amen. Amen. All right, so folks, that's it. Thank you so much for listening to Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self. God bless you.

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Hey, I hope today's show has been a blessing to you. I appreciate you listening and uh, being a part of this. You know, I do this because every now and then I hear from people and they tell me that the show has had a positive impact on, on your life. Please download and share this with people, get the word out. I just want to minister to people and help them in their walk with the Lord, you know? That's, that's my goal. If you would again, like a autograph copy of my book, uh, The Call, just go to make a donation of $15 or more at icmcollege.org/donate and then uh, be sure in the comments put down your address, I'll send you an autograph copy. Appreciate that and mainly I just appreciate you and would love hearing from you, you know, what you think about the show and uh, maybe some topics that uh, would bless you. Uh, just email me, drrayself@gmail.com. D r r a y s e l f at gmail.com. God bless you and thank you very very much for listening to Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self.