Tolerated or Celebrated

Hey, welcome to Self Talk. This is your host, Dr. Ray Self. In this show, I’m talking about being celebrated or tolerated. So many times we're tolerated because of the call of God on our life. People just don't understand us because the spirit in us is different than the spirit in them and it's very painful, and those that just tolerate you can be your own family and friends, but Jesus experienced the very same thing. So, are you tolerated or are you celebrated? This is the purpose of this show. We're going to talk about this and what can you do about this and how do you, how do you get through this? It's a very important show.

Hey, don't forget to check out the website for the show, icmcollege.org/selftalk. All kinds of cool stuff on there and don't forget to check out our new store, just now put up a new hoodie in our store, it's really good so check it out. God bless you, thanks for listening.

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Welcome to Self Talk, I'm your host Dr. Ray Self. Are you celebrated or tolerated? So, and Jesus, when we go into the, the word of God, we have- Jesus goes back to his hometown of Nazareth, and excuse me, yeah, uh, yeah, he's back to his hometown of Nazareth and he began to speak and he said a very… he picked up the scrolls in the synagogue. He picked up the scroll and he read uh, from, from Isaiah and he read the scripture that says the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then he closed the book. It says he gave it to the attendant, he sat down, all the eyes who were in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them “today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”. 

Well, that was an amazing statement, so the people in the room, “so all bore witness to him”, this is Luke 4, verse 22, “and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth and they said is this not Joseph's son?” So here, they're saying wait a minute, we know this guy, he's the carpenter's son. Um, this is no one special, this is just a guy from that we, we saw growing up. And then he proceeded to tell them a story about um, you know in Luke 23, he said “You will surely say this proverb to me, ‘physician, heal yourself! Whatever we've heard done in Capernaum, do here also in your country’”. And then he said something very powerful, Luke 4:24 then he says “Surely, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.”

There is, I believe from my experience, a familiar spirit and this familiar spirit attacked Jesus. They were so familiar with Jesus that they could not accept who the Lord called him to be and who the Lord saw him as, and that's because they were so familiar with him. And when people are familiar with you, what they tend to do is they tend to put you into a particular role that you are expected to play. Imagine your life is a, is a play, of a theatrical production, okay? And everybody uh, you know, when you have a play, there's actors and actresses and everybody plays a certain part. Well, growing up with family, friends and neighbors,you tend to be pegged into a certain role and expected to play that particular part, okay? But when the Lord calls you and the spirit of the Lord comes upon you and you're born again and you're anointed and you're empowered, you become a different person. Now all of a sudden, you're not playing the role that your friends and your family expect you to play and this is what happened with Jesus.

Jesus was just a carpenter's son and they were familiar with him. I call that a familiar spirit. They were familiar with him and they expected him just to continue playing the role, “you are a carpenter’s son just, go get your hammer go get your chisel and do what you're called to do. What do you mean sitting here in the synagogue and, and calling yourself anything special?” And it ended up getting so bad, he began to tell them stories about Isaiah and explained to them how in your own hometown, prophets were not welcome and this had happened before biblically. He ended up angering the people, very- the people got very mad at him because he was not playing the role he was supposed to play. He was playing the role God called him to play. And then it got so intense that you look at those um, verse 28, Luke 4, “for those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,” In other words, the people wanted to kill him.Why? he was not acting the part he was supposed to act. He was not playing the part he was supposed to play. He was claiming to be something that they could not accept him as because they were familiar with him. They had that familiar spirit.

And so it says in Luke 29, Luke 4:29, “and they rose up and thrust him out of the city; and they led him to the brow of a hill on which the city was built, that they might throw him down the cliff.” They wanted to kill him. They were so angry, they led him up to a cliff and they were going to throw him off the cliff. But then something supernatural happened. “Then passing through the midst of them, he went his own way.” Jesus was not going to let them do that. You see, Jesus was only persecuted when he allowed himself to be persecuted, well, he allowed himself to be crucified, let me put it that way. A lot of people rejected him but the point of this, what I'm trying to get to, is there is a familiar spirit that will attack you and cause you not to be heard and not to be accepted. 

In other words, I believe what happens with this spirit is you become tolerated instead of celebrated, and I have seen this time and time and time again. Many people that I know call this the Nazareth principle, where we are around people that are familiar with you. Maybe you grew up with, maybe you've been around for years, they don't really see you according to the way God sees you. They see you according to the role they have assigned to your life and you are expected to play this role, to play this part and then- but you're not that part anymore because something has changed in you. You have filled with the Holy Spirit, you are anointed of God, you're called of God, you're a different person, you're above and not beneath, you’re the head, not the tail. You, you're doing signs and wonders, and miracles are coming out of your hands and they cannot accept this because they have this familiar spirit going on, they know they have pegged you with a certain role and they expect you o play that role and how dare you not play the assigned role that they have assigned to you for years, and this is what happened with Jesus.

Jesus had been assigned a role. His, his assignment was “you're just to be a carpenter’s son and if I have a broken hinge, I need you to fix it. If I need a new chair, I'll call you to make me a new chair. If I need a desk, I'll call you to make me a desk.” And, this was his role, expected to play. But Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, now on a mission from God, the Son of God, the Savior, the Messiah who was and is and is to come. They had pegged him, put him in a role, they expected him to play. They had a familiar spirit and they were, at first they were barely tolerating him. They definitely were not celebrating him, and then they wanted to kill him. And so there are places in your life where you will be tolerated and it's sad. And sometimes places where you're just tolerated are around people that you love and care; and they put up with you but they don't really know you. They don't understand the call of God on your life, they don't really, they're not in agreement with God's call on your life and sadly so many times these people are people that are close to you. It can be your own church, it can be your home church, it could be your, your, your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, some of your best friends because they have pegged you.

I know for instance, um, oh, a few years ago I went to a high school reunion. I will not tell you how many years reunion it was and um, I was talking to one of my best friends from high school and college and then I told him what I do now and he looked at me and he just had this blank look on his face and he could not respond. He, he didn't even know what to say to that. He just sort of looked at me but he wanted to talk about all the wild and crazy things we did and how much fun it was and you know, when we did all these things in college and high school, of course I look back and I see that as very dark times and times that I'm actually ashamed of, that I repented of and God delivered me from, but he could not see me. This is my best friend from high school and college he could not understand or see or have any knowledge of who I was and sometimes, and I love my church, sometimes even people in my own church, they don't really know me, they don't really understand me, the call of God of my life, so they tolerate me. And that principle is the same thing Jesus was faced with. And it's painful and it hurts, but it's important to know that God has called you to certain people. 

God has called you to a certain place, God has called you to a certain time, and there are people who celebrate you, there are people called of God who will celebrate you and honor you and love you and cherish your gifting because they get it. They get the call of God on your life and that's really nice to be around. Being around, being in places where you're tolerated. You know, you could endure it, you can live through it, for many years I've done it, you know, for many times, and you can, you can do that, you can live in the tolerated zone for a long time. But I'll tell you what, when you get to the place where you're celebrated, around the people that you're celebrated, it does feel good. 

And know this, that Jesus experienced the same problem, he had the same problem. He had the same problem, they were willing to tolerate him as long as he played the role of the carpenter's son but the moment he stepped into the role of Messiah, they were angry with him and they wanted to kill him, amen.

Jeanette, I appreciate your comments, that's really good, and good morning La Fondria and Dr. T. and all of you guys logged in today. Priscilla, God bless all of you. I have something very special in my office for you Jeanette, and it's, it's really, really nice, going to be shipped out today uh, congratulations. So that's my message today and I want to, and I want to give you another warning about this. God may put you in a place where you're just tolerated for a reason and for a season but for your mental and emotional and spiritual health, you do need to find those places and those people that will celebrate you, understand you, be in agreement with God's purpose for your life.

You remember when Jesus was um- haha, amen, Jeanette. You remember when Jesus was um, where was he? Uh, where was the story? Oh, yeah, he was in the house and he was ministering and there was a knock at the door and he said Jesus, your, your brother and your, your mother are outside and then Jesus said well, let me tell you who my mother and brother and sisters are, those who do the will of God. In other words, he was saying that now people in the will of God for your life, the body of Christ who understands you, they become your new family. Now, you, you love your family, you never quit loving your family, but there is a new family for you that understands you, that gets you, that celebrates you, that's in agreement, that's in agreement with God's plan for your life, amen?

And I want you to think about that. Are you being tolerated or celebrated? And where are you celebrated? You know, that's the place you want to hang out, you know, for your emotional, mental, spiritual health. Find the places you’re celebrated, find the people that celebrate you, that understand you, and quit trying to drink water out of a dry well. And I've done that, I've tried time and time and time again. Sometimes with family and friends, to get them to understand who I was. I'll be, you know, I have some friends that I'll start sharing some things that God has done, you know, about this prophetic moment I had about preaching at a particular church, about laying hands on somebody and watching them get healed and they just look at me like they don't know what to say and they don't really say anything because they just want me to go back to the Ray Self that they have pegged me to be, their good old buddy or the good old boy. 

And so I realized I've got a person here in my life that's tolerating me but they're not celebrating me and I want to put something on screen here real quick so hold on just one second, just one second. But this is something, something very, very special that I'm going to put up on, on the screen here and I think that um, I think that somebody who's logged in is going to appreciate this very, very, very much so let's see if we can put this up here. Okay, okay, can you see this? (Dr. Ray holds a student’s diploma up to the screen) Okay, all right all right. Okay. Just had to show that. All right. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well guys, I love you, I want to pray for you. I thank you everyone for listening to me. We're actually now recording this to put it on Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. So this is our Facebook live being recorded.

So Heavenly Father, I thank you for each person listening to me today, Lord. Lord I praise you that we can be celebrated, not just tolerated but Lord, I know that Jesus and many places he went he was only tolerated because they expected him just to, to be some ordinary carpenter’s son but Lord, you called him to something extraordinary because he was extraordinary. He was God himself and Father, the people listening to me, we're not ordinary, we're extraordinary. We're your children, we're joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We're filled with the Holy Spirit. We are anointed, we are called of God, Father. Lord, I pray, Father, eyes will be opened and ears would be opened that they could hear and see the truth about us Father. Lord, we want to be celebrated not just to so we can feel good, but also Lord, so we can share the truth about you, so we can do the signs wonders and miracles, Father, to, to be a vessel for you, Father. And Lord, I just thank you Father, and I rebuke this familiar spirit that wants to attack and discourage everyone listening to me today, Father. I renounce the familiar spirit and I say Lord, we are familiar with you and you're familiar with us but this familiar spirit that the devil uses to cause harm, I renounce that spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen, and amen. Amen, amen.

I appreciate you guys so, so, so much. Um, thank you everyone for logged in today, um, God bless you, God bless you all. Amen. Amen. Um, and so check out the podcast. Also, don't forget next Tuesday night. Uh, the 17th of January we're starting a class called Signs, Won- Moving in Signs, Wonders and Miracles taught by Kathy Coppola out of Mission Viejo, California. That starts on Tuesday night. Love you guys, thank you so, so, so, so, so much, um, for listening to me and uh, every Tuesday morning. It is an honor and it's a privilege. I know it sounds like a cliche but it really, really is. Amen. Amen. God bless you and this is uh, Dr. Ray Self, Self Talk, and we are out of here. Love you much.

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