There is a Demonic Scheme Against You

Hello. Welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. This is the show where you're going to get real answers for tough issues. And I'm doing a series now about exposing Satan's schemes against you. Do you not realize that every Christian has a scheme against their life that maybe started before you were even born? And knowledge of these schemes is critical. The apostle Paul said in second Corinthians, two verse eleven, so no advantage would be taken of us, for we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes. He also told us to put on the full armor of God so we can stand against the schemes of the enemy. A scheme is a plan. A scheme is something that works against you and explains why things are happening. So you can cast out demons all you want to, but if you're not aware of the scheme against your life, you're still going to have these frustrations. Pay attention to this show and this next series that I'm doing. I think it will be very helpful to you. I love you. This is going to be a great show. Thanks for listening.

[Intro]

Hey. Welcome to Selftalk, Dr. Ray. Self. I want to tell you a story about me. You know this is a subject we're going to be talking about schemes. I had no knowledge that there was such a thing as a scheme until maybe, I don't know, maybe it's 20 years or so ago when I started realizing that there's a reason these destructive things have happened in my life. You see, a scheme is a plan. A scheme is a plot. A scheme is a strategy. And when Satan makes plans and plots and strategies, he makes them in a customized way for you. What I believe, and my experience has shown, and the Bible backs up the scripture tells us that before we're in a mother's womb, he knew us, right? The principle that God knew you before you were born, you know, that you were created for a purpose. You know you were created for something special. You're not an accident. You're not just a result of a random accident that comes from a big bang explosion which is totally unscientifically proven. You are created by our divine Creator for an amazing purpose. Satan knows this, and he strategizes on how he can derail you your whole life. Let me give you an example of my life. I had a struggle in my life as long as I can remember. I struggled with believing that I mattered. When I was a kid, I was to be seen and not heard. And I loved my parents and they were doing the best that they knew how to do. But I was known as the Invisible Child. This was the role that I played. Now, as you know, if you heard about teaching over the years, there's four roles that kids tend to play in a dysfunctional family. There's the hero child. That's the one who's perfect in all their ways and can do no wrong. That's the way they cope. Another role that kids play is the clown. Everything is a joke. Everything is funny. Everything is hilarious. This is how they cope with the dysfunction. A third role that kids play is a scapegoat. They're always in trouble. Blame me. It's my fault. I did it. I'm the bad guy. I take the heat. I take the blame. But the fourth role is the invisible child. Okay? It's the invisible child. This is the one that kind of melts into the background and just sort of becomes invisible. And that's what I did most of my life growing up, I became invisible. I honestly felt that, I mean, I didn't realize that I didn't matter. I just knew that I had a belief, a stronghold in my life, that other people were important and what other people needed was important, what other people thought was important, what other people accomplished was important. And my self esteem was very low. And I did not feel that I was valuable. I did not feel that I was worthy. I did not feel that I mattered. And Satan and all his wickedness arranged my life so that message would be reinforced to me through teachers, through coaches, through family members, through bosses. Every time I turned around, there was something that reinforced the message of, Ray, do you really count? Are you really worth anything? Do you really matter? And when I grew and got older and got into high school and college, this is Ima show my age now, I was a hippie. This is back in the so I became I became a hippie. It was my perfect escape. And I got into drugs. And of course, the motto back then, excuse the expression, was sex, drugs and rock and roll. I lived that lifestyle. I didn't know why I was so involved in that lifestyle. But looking back, I know that I was reacting to a scheme against my life. I was in pain. I was in terrible pain because I did not matter. Let me tell you something. When you don't believe that you matter and you do not believe that you're valuable, the pain is immense. I suffered depression day after day after day. I struggled with thinking that uh, I was, you know, I was valuable. I didn't go around thinking I was invaluable. I just knew I was invaluable. I knew other people mattered. I knew other people could accomplish things. And so I just sort of made myself invisible. And it's interesting how many times throughout my youth I would be ignored or skipped over or forgotten time and time again. I remember once I was at a, you know, a baseball practice for my pee wee baseball team, and my mother forgot to pick me up. And back then they would leave you at the field. There was no coach standing with me. I just stood at this field sitting in the bleachers, waiting for um seemed like hours for my mother to come pick me up. And that was okay, because I didn't matter. I hear you little violins getting out right now, playing poor Dr. Ray. But realizing that I was born for a purpose. I was born for a reason. I was born to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was born to flow prophetically. I was born to write books. I was born for what I'm doing right now. And Satan had a scheme against me. I call my scheme I don't matter. Some people will use the word illegitimacy. I struggled with that. It was so painful that I did drugs. I did drugs to medicate. I did drugs so I wouldn't feel. Now, the Lord brought me out of it. The Holy Spirit fell on me one night so powerfully that it's just an incredible story. The spirit of God fell on me in a friend of mine's living room after a prayer. And my life changed forever and ever and ever. And as I got into the Word and began to realize who I am in Christ, I knew that it was a lie that I had been living a lie, that there was a scheme against me. And Paul said, do not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. What was the scheme against me? The scheme against me was, Ray, you don't matter, and I'll prove it to you. You know your parents will forget to pick you up. Your teacher won't ever choose you for anything. Your coach will ignore the fact that you're the best hitter on the team. He won't even start you in the game. Things like this, over and over and over, I could go into uh when I got older, I could walk into a store and nobody would acknowledge me. Like I was invisible. It was weird. I remember just being in walking on a sidewalk. Somebody walked into me like I was invisible. And so I'm invisible. I don't matter. This message, this stronghold, this thing tormented me and was reinforced for years. And this was a demonic scheme. But when I realized what the scripture is telling me put on the full armor of God so to be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, I didn't understand spiritual warfare. I didn't understand these things could be broken. And I don't receive that now. But you see, a scheme is a customized plan. In Isaiah, it says, no weapon formed against us shall prosper. Well, the first part of that verse is, no weapon formed against us, which tells me weapons have been formed against us. So what is a scheme? Let me give you some other schemes. Now, I know it's a big, huge generalization to say that every Christian has a scheme. I will tell you what. Pretty much everybody I've counseled administer to has suffered some form of a scheme of the enemy. Another, probably the most common scheme I've run across is the scheme of illegitimacy. Now, illegitimacy is kind of a scheme that causes you to question your value, question your worth. It's similar to my scheme of I don't matter. Remember when Jesus was tempted in the desert? Now, he had just received the Holy Spirit from his Father. This is my son whom I'm well pleased. The Spirit of Lord comes upon him as a dove. So Jesus goes into the desert, and the first thing Satan does is he asks Jesus a question. And he said, if you be the Son of God question mark. If you be the Son of God, question turn these stones into bread. What was he trying to do? He was trying to get Jesus to question who he was. That's what I call the Spirit of illegitimacy. And that spirit is in the world. I see this with church leaders all the time. It might be the most confident pastor you think in the world, but underneath it all, there's this little voice that says, are you really anointed? Are you really called? Are you really a good pastor? Does anybody care about you? Is anybody listening to you? This is the spirit of Illegitimacy. This spirit is so enormous. This scheme of illegitimacy is so enormous, it affects the world. You see, when people have this spirit of illegitimacy attacking them, they'll spend their life trying to prove their worth. And how do people in the world try to prove their worth? They try to prove it by winning, by competition, winning at sports, winning at business, being successful in the world's eyes, which means having a lot of money, having a lot of things. Athletes, competitive, you know, competitive people, I believe and this is a bold statement most competitive people, athletes who just if they lose a game, it's the end of the world, a game! If they lose a football game or a baseball game or a basketball game, it's the end of the world for them. Why? It's a game. How important is that? But to them, it's all about their legitimacy, because if they lose the game, it reinforces their illegitimacy. Get it? And when they win, they go, Ha ha. I'm legitimate. You'll see, on Sunday afternoon, if you watch NFL football, of course, NFL is kind of questionable right now. You'll see grown men sitting on the bench, 250 pound linebackers sitting on the bench with their head holding their head in their hands, crying because they lost a game. I'm going, oh, my gosh, it's a game. Why? Because their legitimacy is tied up into sports. You see, our legitimacy is the fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, gave his life in exchange for us. That's how valuable we are. That's what makes us legitimate. That God so loved us that he gave His Son to swap his life for our life. That's legitimacy. And as a result of that, we become joint heirs with Jesus Christ, members of the royal priesthood above, and not beneath the head and not the tail saints. This is who we become. That's legitimacy. But the spirit of Illegitimacy is a scheme that affects everyone. I mean, well, I wouldn't say everyone. It's the most common scheme, Illegitimacy, you know? And usually it will be the driving force behind the most egotistical people on the planet. And those people that appear the most confident and the most egotistical underneath it all feel illegitimate. Therefore, they have this cover up of super confidence, of being egotistical. Now, I'm not making a political statement. I'm being interested in the podcast. I think Donald Trump has a terrible spirit of illegitimacy. I think that's why he's so self defensive. I think that's why he has to put his name on every airplane, every building. He has to have trump golf courses, trump buildings, trump airplanes, trump everything. Trump hotels, you name it. Why? To prove his worth. To prove his worth. Underneath it all, I believe the man is insecure. This is not speaking against him. He's suffering what millions of people suffer trying to prove your worth. Okay? Through your performance, through your name, however. Okay, so this is a big one, and it is a demonic scheme, another scheme. Rejection. I know people that seems like they have the word rejection written on themselves, and they get rejected wherever they go. It's like their rejection looking for a place to happen. Every time they turn around, somebody's rejecting them. And it, you see, a scheme will repeat itself over and over and over again because it's a customized weapon and it works. Another, uh, another scheme is worthlessness. You know, I'm not valuable. Mine was I don't matter we're just related to worthlessness. There's a scheme of fear. My mother had this scheme. My mother struggled with fear her whole life. Now, she wasn't I mean, it's funny, she was kind of courageous in many ways, but she just worried and worried and worried and worried and worried. She could not shake the worry and fear. And looking back, I wish I had known she's not with us on Earth anymore, that this was a scheme of the enemy to torment her with fear. Now, what is the purpose of the scheme? It’s to keep you from God's Promised land. You know I wrote the book. Redeeming your past and finding your promised land It's a great book. You need to get it. And I talk about schemes in this book because I believe the scheme against you is an attack to keep you out of your promised land. Your Promised land is this place God created you to be doing the thing you were created to be. This is where you flourish. This is where you make a difference for God. This is where you make a difference. This is the way you become more of you than you could ever conceivably ever think of ever being. This is when you become you to the max because you're in your creative place. Satan does not want you to be there, you see? Satan cannot attack God directly. He attacks God indirectly by attacking you. Satan cannot defeat God, but he thinks if he can defeat you, he will defeat God's plans working through you. So the way he tries to hinder God is to hinder you because God is using you so illegitimacy, fear, rejection. Oh, another one is abandonment. Um I know people have had a scheme of abandonment. It seems like every time they turn around, somebody is leaving them. Somebody's always leaving them. It could be a parent, it could be a spouse, a child, a pastor, whatever. Every time they turn around, someone is leaving them. But this is a scheme of unworthiness illegitimacy. You're not good as you saw; you see this. The problem with racism in our nation, you know, which I grew up in the south in the 50s, 60s, 70s, it was there. It was there. This was a scheme against the African Americans that they're not as good as okay, they're not as good as, they don't measure up. They're not worthy, they're not equal, they're not valuable, blah, blah, blah. It's evil. It's pure evil. So what do you do? What do you do? Don't be ignorant of the scheme. You know, Paul said that we battle not against flesh and blood. We battle not against flesh and blood. Our battle so many times we're sitting here, we're fighting the wrongg fight. We're trying to defeat our flesh. It's not a fleshly battle. It's a spiritual battle. We're in a spiritual battle. If you don't see the spiritual battle in our nation today, if you don't see the demonic deception all over our nation like I've never seen before, we're in a spiritual battle, and there's a spiritual war going on against you, and you must be aware of it. Now, I'm not focusing on the devil, but I don't know, something. For instance, go back to me, Ray Self you don't matter. You don't matter. What you think doesn't matter. What you believe doesn't matter, you know, you don't matter. Well, you know what? That's a lie. And when those feelings come to me or I see somebody trying to reinforce that, I do not receive it. And my spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. In the name of Jesus Christ, lord, I submit to you, I resist the devil, and I command this scheme to be broken in Jesus name. Now, if you've got sin in your past that you've never repented of and asked forgiveness of, do it. If you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. See sin unrepentant of an unforgiving sin. It's just a wide open door for schemes, okay? Don't give Satan permission in your life. Repent of your sin, ask forgiveness, and allow the Lord to cleanse you of unrighteousness. Amen. That's our part. But another part of our job is not to be ignorant. Second corinthians again. 2:11. Paul said so no advantage will be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. Ephesians 6:11 put on the full armor of God, you know, the full armor of God, put on the full armor of God so you can stand firm against the schemes of the enemy. The shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. Why? So you can stand against the schemes of the enemy. The plans of the enemy. You know, growing up and uh, yeah I went from full blown Baptist to fullblown charismatic, worked in the Deliverance Ministry for years and cast out a lot of demons. But I want to tell you something, the thing we missed was the scheme. Because you see, you can cast out demons, but if you don't know what Satan's plan is, it's going to continue. But when you realize Satan's strategy and you know what the enemy's plan is, you can counteract that plan and defeat him. Every you know, I love to study history in every general, every general of the army throughout history. What they want to know most is what is the enemy up to? Where is the enemy going to attack? Where is the enemy the strongest? Okay, what is the enemy up to? And if you realize the plans of the enemy, you can counter him and you can defeat him. But if you're unaware of the schemes of the enemy, you can be in big trouble. Pearl harbor was a great example of that. Japan had a scheme that if they could attack Pearl Harbor, where our entire Pacific fleet was at rest, they felt with one big blow they could defeat us or discourage us so much that we would sue for peace. We would sue for peace. We would come and running. We want peace, we do not want to fight you. In other words, we would surrender. This was their plan. Well, we were not aware of their plan. Even though there were signals and there were symptoms and there was some radio traffic and even radar saw them coming in and thought they were our planes. And so because we missed the plans of Japan, it cost us over three thousand sailors and civilians. It was horrible. The same principle works in your life when you are aware of Satan's schemes against you, you can counteract it with the word of God, you can counteract it with the name of Jesus, you can rebuke it, you can refuse to receive it, and you can live in freedom. Yay! How about that? Do not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. You know what is - what’s going on in your life that maybe it's just repeated itself? I mean, it just seems like you go from just one problem to another to another to another. It's always the same old thing over and over and over again. Um, I ran across a man not too long ago, went from job to job to job, and every single time he left the job, it was the same offense. It was the same offense. Something's wrong with this picture here. It's the same pattern, and it cost him job after job after job. That's a scheme. A scheme is a pattern that is frustrating and not good and repeats itself, and that is evidence that it is something demonic going on. Now, sometimes our flesh gets in there. A lot of times our flesh gets in there and we cooperate with the scheme, and you know we need to repent of that. But think about what has the Devil been, what's he up to? What's he trying to do in your life? What's he been trying to do your whole life? Now that you are aware of it, you see, now that you're aware of it, you can say, you know what? I'm going to submit myself to God. I'm going to resist the Devil on his schemes, and they're going to flee from me. In Jesus name, amen. Just pray with me. Let's just pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for each person listening to this show. Lord, I know that you've warned us not to be ignorant of Satan's schemes. Father, we don't want to focus on Satan. We want to focus on you and Your kingdom and Your glory, Father. But Father, You've also told us, Father, that these signs will follow those that believe in My name. They will cast out demons. So, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we come together and we rebuke these demonic schemes against the body of Christ, against the Church, against our nation. In Jesus name and Father, for everyone listening to me, give them the discernment that they need, what scheme is operating against them, and give them the boldness to speak up and resist the devil and the authority of the Name above all names, Jesus Christ, Father, and I thank You, Lord. That these weapons will cease. These schemes will be destroyed. For Your glory and for Your name, Father, and we thank you, Jesus. We rebuke these schemes of illegitimacy rejection, fear, abandonment, rebellion, all these schemes, Father, whatever it is, Father, countless names, father, we renounce these schemes and declare freedom over everyone listening to this show today. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. God bless you.

[Outro]

Hey, thank you for listening to Selftalk with Dr. Ray Self. I hope this show maybe I mean, it's a tough show. I hope it blessed you. I hope that it gave you some courage and gave you some hope that we can break these attacks of the enemy. We don't have to live in this anymore. In Jesus name, I want to encourage you with a couple of things. Over 22 years ago, I founded the International College of Ministry. It's an online, Holy Spirit filled seminary that is affordable with scholarships available, if you have financial problems. Just go to Icmcollege.org. Enroll, enroll today, get the degree. We have degrees in ministry, theology, Christian counseling, which is very popular and also prophetic ministry. Maybe you're called into that ministry, but whatever it is, you got the call of God on your life. The phone is ringing, and it's not stopping until you answer the call. And that's our job, is to equip you for your call. Get your college degree. We're accredited. Why not? Go to Icmcollege.org, enroll, and check out my books Hear His Voice, be His Voice; Redeeming Your Past Finding Your Promised Land. Don't forget my podcast website. That's icmcollege.org/selftalk every show I've ever done, all 105 of them. You can find it on that website. Also, we've got a store now with my books in there and also some courses you can purchase. Spiritual Warfare, Foundations of Spiritual Warfare school of the Spirit Some really cool courses. When you're at my website, please give me a review, uh, Subscribe. You know that. You know the deal. All I want to say is thank you for listening. It really is an honor and a privilege. This is Dr. Ray Self. God bless you.