Walking by the Spirit

Dr. Ray: Hello and welcome to Self Talk, I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. Very glad you're with me. This is going to be a real exciting show. Recently, I was very blessed to be in Crown Point, Indiana, ministering in a three-day prophetic event at Living Stone's Church, pastored by Dr. Ron Johnson. What an incredible church with an amazing group of people full of the love of God. As part of this prophetic event, I was invited to be on the Ron Johnson Discipleship Podcast interviewing about the value of the prophetic gift. I really believe this is a fascinating interview and I want to play this for you today. This podcast is brought to you by the International College of Ministry, an accredited, Holy Spirit-filled, online college, enrolling now at icmcollege.org. Let's listen to the interview and God bless you.

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Dr. Ray: Hello welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. I'm very glad you're with me today. Let's open up with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. I thank you for each person listening to the sound of my voice. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would anoint me to speak your word. Be with us now, Father. Bless each one, Father. Open up our ears, open up our hearts to receive you today. Speak to us Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.

So this show is brought to you by the International College of Ministry, a Holy Spirit-filled seminary, I'm very blessed to be president of this seminary. Um, online at icmcollege.org, check it out. If you would like to finish your college education in a Holy Spirit-filled way, an accredited way, work on your own schedule, your own time frame, go to icmcollege.org. Icmcollege.org. That's my promo for today, yay. 

The scripture that's in mind today, I want to talk to you about, it's very serious, very serious; and sometimes the word of God is, it's a little scary. But this scripture is uh, in Romans 8:4, says, Paul's writing here, it says “so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” So in principle here, Paul is saying if we want to meet God's requirements, if we want to be obedient to God, if we want to obey God, the only way to do that is to walk according to the Spirit. And then he goes on to say “The mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. The mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, it's not even able to do so. Those are in the flesh cannot please God.”

If, so if you think about this, the, the magnitude of this, he's saying our natural man, we can't please God naturally. The only way to really please God is to walk by the Spirit. He said we, the law requirements, the requirements of the law, the law were God's requirements for his people. There were 630 requirements for God's people. This is what he called them to do. As a matter of fact, the blessings in Deuteronomy, chapter 28, came because of obedience to the law. But now since we have the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit resides in us, the lawgiver, the lawmaker is in our hearts.

So when we walk by the Spirit, we're obedient to God. If we're not walking by the Spirit according to this right here, according to the Apostle Paul, if we're not walking by the Holy Spirit we are disobedient to God. That's, that's a challenge because I don't know about you, but I live kind of a natural life. I'm not walking by the Spirit all the time. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't but I think the Lord is telling us, I don't think according to this we are to be living by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit should be our primary influence. I know the spirit of God talks to us, I know He is convicting us, I know He is leading us, He gives us pictures, He gives us ideas, He gives us uh, stories, He gives us impressions. I think that me, and I'm talking for me, but I think I'm talking for a lot of other people. I'm so distracted, I'm so busy, I'm so focused on other things, if the Holy Spirit were leading me, I would miss it. I mean, if He is leading me which I believe he is, I'm missing it so many times because I'm just so caught up in what I'm doing. What the Lord is telling us, I believe with all my heart the Lord is telling us that we have, must begin to focus our mind, focus our mind on what is the Holy Spirit trying to tell me today? What is the Holy Spirit wanting me to do? What is the Holy Spirit wanting me to say? Even now in this podcast, what's the Spirit of God wanting me to say to, to my listeners? And thank you for listening by the way, I got a lot of them, praise the Lord, saints, amen.

So it's just a, it's a really incredible, an incredible commandment that he goes on to say that those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. That scripture is terrifying because if those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God, what about those Christians who are not led by the Spirit? Does that mean they're not children of God? So I do believe in my heart Paul is encouraging us and telling us that if we want to be obedient to God, if we want to be obedient to God's commandments, we must walk by the Spirit. Jesus said in the gospels, in Matthew He said “You are My friend if you follow My commandments.” Jesus even said “If you obey My commandments, you are my disciples. You are My friends if you obey My commandments. God is saying our right standing is depending on obedience. Well, how, how can I be obedient to God? It's not by obeying a set of laws that were written by Moses, it's by obeying the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit's not going to violate God's laws but what I want to get across today, and I get passionate about the Holy Spirit because what He's done in my life is, I believe more than ever we really need to be hearing what God is saying and follow His voice.

The Holy Spirit is going to lead us into amazing things. In Ephesians it says “to Him who will do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever think or ask for.” I had an old preacher friend of mine who said, “you know, every time I read that scripture I think about that I can think and ask for a lot of things but God wants to give me more.” You see, there's so much going on in my mind but the Lord is saying, set my mind. And I'm telling you, listeners, set your mind. You can control your mind. We can control our mind, we have control over what we think about. Are we thinking about Jesus? Are we thinking about the Holy Spirit? And maybe even more than thinking, a mindset is a mindset on listening. Can we hear God speak to us? Can we hear what the Holy Spirit is directing us to do? Do we pay attention to that conviction which means don't do that? Do we pay attention to that conviction means I need to ask for forgiveness? Do we pay attention to that?

When I am paying attention to the Holy Spirit every single day, according to the Apostle Paul, then I am obedient to God. I am obedient to God. So the- it begs the question if I am not, if I am not, if I am not, have my mind set, if I'm not walking by the Spirit- the requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, who do not live according to whatever your flesh, our natural sinful self wants to do. But we walk according to the Holy Spirit, so I'm talking out loud, I'm processing out loud, what does it mean to walk by the Holy Spirit? Does that mean I just, I'll walk around oh, the Lord told me, the Lord said, oh, and, I mean, I know people that get weird with it. They get kind of crazy with it. 

I knew a person years ago, I'll never forget this, and um, I went into their church years ago - and I'm not condemning anybody, I just thought it was one of the strangest things I ever went to - there was a picture on the wall and the pastor said, “yes, the Lord told me to put that picture there.” There were, the chairs were arranged in maybe a semi-circle and the pastor said - it was a lady pastor - she said, “The Lord told me to put these chairs in a circle.” There was a vase of flowers sitting on the counter and she said, “The Lord told me to put those flowers on the counter.” And I'm going okay, this is getting strange. And then the lord- everything in the building was because the Lord said. And then I realized that she was not taking any responsibility for life at all. She was not making any decisions, she was blaming God for everything and it got kind of strange. 

I am saying this, that God gives us wisdom, He gives us practical wisdom to, for life. You know, things that we should do; look both ways before you cross the street, you know. He gives us practical wisdom but the same time, this law-giver, the Spirit of God, lives inside of us. That's what separates us from the old testament of believers was we now have the Spirit of God living in us. 

So what do we do? What do? We do- we're to walk by the Spirit. That means the Holy Spirit, I believe, is talking to us. He's giving us impressions, He's giving us feelings, He's giving us ideas, He's giving us visions, and we are to pay attention to those. We still crave external stuff, people love rituals, we love habits, we love traditions. You know, it's like, and I'm gonna get off a little bit on tithing here. It's like tithing. I don't ever- so many Christians, they don't ask God what they should give, “you know what, I'm gonna give my 10%. I made, I see 428 dollars last week so I'll give 42 dollars and 80 cents to the church.” Well the question is, what is the Lord telling you to give? 

Now tithing is a great principle, I get it but, and the better principle is to be obedient to the voice of God and pay attention to what He's telling you to do. But you see, I think we're either too lazy or too comfortable. Many people will tell you in traditional churches “Oh, I just love my church traditions. I love my church traditions.” You know why we like traditions? Because traditions give us a sense of control. Traditions tell us what to expect. We know exactly what's going to happen, we know what's going, what's going to take place when we know how long the service is going to last, we know how long the sermon is going to last, we know exactly what's going to take place. It gives us a sense of control and a sense of false security. But when the Holy Spirit is in control, we don't know what's going to happen and it makes us nervous and we lose control which is exactly what God wants us to do. He wants us to be out of control so he can be in control and that's what being led by the spirit is, and walking by the Spirit.

I'm encouraging you if you're listening to me, I think we all need to repent and I think we need to make a better effort with our mind and with our spirit to walk by the Holy Spirit. What is the impression you have right now? What do you feel convicted to do? What is the burden upon your heart? What- pay attention to that. Oh, remember the red flags, pay attention to that little check in your spirit, all these things have to do with walking by the Spirit. You have a dream that, maybe it's a warning. Pay attention to it. You have a dream, maybe it's a new vision, go with it. There's prophetic words that have been given to you that you've ignored, you didn't write them down, you're paying no attention to them. Pay attention to them. If we walk according to the leading of the Holy Spirit, then we are making or meeting the requirements of God. We meet God's requirements, the requirement of the law is fulfilled in us. When, us, when we walk by the Holy Spirit. When we're not walking by the leading of the Holy Spirit, we're not meeting God's requirements. It's a very serious scripture. Jesus said you know, “My,” “My sheep know Me,” “know my voice; they follow Me.” Well, I can't follow Christ if I don't know His voice. 

And there's practical things you can do, okay? Read your bible, read a chapter a day, okay? Practical things. Pray, but when you pray, are you listening? Are you just talking? Let me say it again. When you pray, are you listening? Are you just talking? All this has to do with being led by the Spirit. When I pray, I need to also be still and listen for God's response, that's about walking by the Spirit. I get a conviction, somebody comes into my mind. I've had some people come into my mind recently. I just start thinking about them out of the clear blue. I believe that's the Holy Spirit saying Ray, you need to call this person. It can be a conviction of something you need to repent of, I've had that recently. You know, there's something, some things I did years ago that maybe I never apologized to a person for. I need to call them and go, “You remember what I did so many years ago? I apologize.” I've had some convictions about that.

So being led by the Spirit’s not just you know, crazy stuff. Sometimes it's, you know, way out there, far out there stuff, sometimes it's practical. Somebody you need to forgive, somebody you need to repent to, something you need to do that you haven't done. Conviction. He convicts us. Something that you need to accomplish you haven't accomplished. That book you should have written; you, you still, that- the thought keeps coming to you about that book you're supposed to write. Where you're supposed to go, what you're supposed to do. And what's really cool about walking by the Holy Spirit is it's always better, it's better than what you could think of. It's more than what you could think of. It's just, it's just amazing. It's, it's good, it's, it's, it's a commandment of God. “For the mind set on the Spirit,” “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God,” Romans 8:7, “for it does not subject itself to God for it's not even able to do so.” The mindset of the flesh is hostile. I don't want to be hostile toward God, okay? But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness.”

We have a commandment. Those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. And then he says in, in verse 12 I think, it's another key verse, I'm reading out of Romans chapter 8, “So then, brethren, we are under obligation,” Obligation. We're obligated not to the flesh but to live, not to live according to the flesh. We're under obligation not to the flesh, we're not to live according to the flesh. We're under obligation to live according to the Spirit of God. It's our obligation, it's our commandment, it's our commandment. “For,” verse 13, Romans 8, “For if you're living according to the flesh you must die; but if by the Spirit you're putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” And this is another cool principle here. The Holy Spirit gives you the power to overcome your flesh. So when I set my mind on the Spirit and I obey the Holy Spirit and I'm led by the Holy Spirit and I'm walking by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit according to Paul, puts to death the deeds of the flesh. So the Holy Spirit gives me power to overcome my bad habits, how about that? Not only does the Holy Spirit lead me into life and life more abundantly, but the Holy Spirit gives me power to overcome. 

Of course, we can always talk about the gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives me the gift of healing, the gift of prophecy, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, all that good stuff. But I think my message today is are you walking by the Holy Spirit or is the Holy Spirit just Sunday during worship? Are we walking every day by the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit our dominant influence every day? Are we so busy that we've got Him tuned out? Are we so focused on life and all its troubles that we just are not listening to Him? We miss that conviction, we miss that leading, we don't do the things that, we don't practice the gifts of the Holy Spirit. “Neglect not the gift which is put in thee by laying on of hands.” We're not doing that. We must walk by the Holy Spirit, folks. If I want to be obedient to God, if you want to be obedient to God, you're listening to me, not according to Ray Self but according to God's word. If we are obedient, we are walking by the Holy Spirit and to do that, our mind is set on the Spirit of God. That's where God's requirements are. That's how we require, we meet all the fulfillments, we meet the, we fulfill the law. We’re a, righteous, meet the righteous requirements of God by being led by the Spirit. 

Remember in Jeremiah 31, he said, “Behold, I make a new covenant with the house of Israel.” And he said “I will write My law within their heart.” What is it God wants me to do? Well, well, He wants me to go to church, He wants me to, to do this, He wants me to do that, okay, that's great, that's all good stuff, but what does God want you to do today? Now this evening, or whenever you're listening to this podcast, what is the Lord telling you? What is that conviction? What is that vision you have? What is that burden that you have? What is that still, small voice? Maybe there's a voice in your head that seems to come out of nowhere. What is that? Pay attention to that gut feeling. What do you think your gut is? That's the heart of your soul, it's the heart of your heart of your being, that's where the Holy Spirit is. Pay attention to all this, that- tune into Him. And God knows that we're still learning, we're still practicing, and it takes an effort. It's a trial, it's a trial and effort thing. It's a trial and error, it's a trial and error thing. And it's just an amazing thing. I don't know, I just, this is what I wanted to talk to you about tonight, today, whenever you're listening to this.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us. Forgive us, Lord, when we're not, we're just, so much, too much flesh going on, Father, I know it is with me. Lord, we need more of You. Father, forgive us for not tuning in, forgive us for not listening, forgive us for not following that conviction in our heart, that burden, Father. Forgive us for ignoring that gut feeling, Father. And Lord, we just recommit tonight, today, this morning, to walk by the Holy Spirit, to meet the righteous requirements of the law, to live by the Spirit. Father, I thank You for each person listening to this podcast and I bless them in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 Amen. Look at the links below. I got a lot of cool stuff down there, you know, check out my books, Hear His Voice Be His Voice, Redeeming Your Past Finding Your Promised Land on Amazon. I've got some course specials and free stuff on my website for you, icmcollege.org. I love you much. Thank you, thank you, thank you and we're going to continue uh, talking about the Holy Spirit. Also, I've got a guest coming up, a certified life coach. Let's talk, he wants to talk about pastoral coaching. That's going to be a interesting topic. You never know what we're going to cover here but it's all for your benefit; Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. Love you much, thanks for listening, God bless you.

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Narrator: Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please subscribe, rate and review our show on itunes, YouTube, Spotify, Charisma Podcast Network, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your review helps our show reach more people and spread the gospel. You can purchase Dr. Self's latest book, Hear His Voice Be His Voice on amazon.com. Please visit Dr. Self's webpage at icmcollege.org for more information and free downloads.