You Asked Him, What Did He Say?

Narrator: Welcome to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self, the place where you can get real answers to tough questions. Jesus promised you abundant life but poor choices and dark forces stand in your way. It is time to learn how to overcome the obstacles that keep you out of your promised land. Knowledge of God will pave the path for you to walk in His blessing.

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Hello and welcome to Self Talk, I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. Very glad you're with me today. Thank you for listening to my show, and this show was sponsored by, it could not happen without the International College of Ministry which is a fully accredited online seminary; enrolling now at icmcollege.org. Icmcollege.org, check it out. There's also a bunch of free stuff on there that you will enjoy and will enrich your life.

So I want to talk to you about something to me that is tough. We all go through difficult times, hard places in our life. I have been, you have been, you may be in a really tough situation right now and you know the story. A lot of things can cause it. It could be finances, it could be a child who has strayed, it could be your health, it could be a troubled marriage, so many things and it's just, it's just difficult. It's just, these difficult places are places where we look for answers. We, we try to figure a way out of it or a way around it, and what do I do? Sometimes the stress and the strain and the sadness is overwhelming and at this time we need God more than any other time in our life. And the bible tells us something, to me it's uh, sometimes the bible is tough. It's tough. But it, but it's important.

So the book of James, chapter 1 verse 2, the bible says “consider it all joy my brethren, when you encounter various trials,” I mean, that's tough. I mean, how do you consider it joyful? Of course, Paul was talking about our reward coming, you know, the reward of persecution. But, then in verse 5, he says if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously without reproach, that will be given to him.” So what he's saying is, Paul knew that in the midst of trial, in hard places we need wisdom. That's when we really need God's wisdom more than any other time. When you're going through something that is challenging you, upsetting you, distressing you, keeping you up at night, that's when we cry out for God. Sometimes we cry oh God, help, oh God, help, oh God, oh God, oh God. But maybe the most important thing we need is God's wisdom, God's answer, God's solution. Now the scripture tells us something very important, it tells us that we should ask God. That we should, you know, if we need wisdom we should ask God but the next verse, verse 6, James 1, “we must ask in faith, without doubting,” and then he says if you ask God for wisdom and then you get into doubt, “you're like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” And he also gives us another, another warning in verse 7, “for that men ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord because a double-minded man is unstable all his ways.” 

So it's, it's an important scripture but it's a tough scripture. What the scripture is telling us is, we need to hear from God. We need God's answer. And you ask God for His wisdom, for his answer, He'll give it to you but it's important for you to realize He has spoken, to hear his voice and not get into doubt because if you get into doubt, it displeases God. God wants you to know His voice and know that He has spoken to you, and then believe He has spoken to you and then act on what He's told you to do. Now, that's easier said than done because we have this thing called intellect and reason and emotions and stress and all this stuff that just shouts at us.

Years ago, you know, when I was first baptized with the Holy Spirit, it seemed to me that God's voice was so loud and so clear it just, I could hear Him. I mean, I could just hear Him speak to me. It's like Lord, what do I do? And He would say Ray, this is what I want you to do and it was clear and loud. And then as I grew and grew in the Lord, it's like His voice got quieter and quieter and quieter to where it's like I was struggling hearing Him. And then one day I asked God this question. I said God, why, why are you not talking to me like you used to talk to me? Why am I struggling hearing you? And then I heard the Lord speak to me and this came to me very clearly, it was like the Lord said Ray, I whisper to you because when I whisper, you have to draw close to me in order to hear. And that really changed me because what God is telling us, I think this applies to you listening to me today, that God is saying I am speaking to you, My child. I have an answer for you, My son, My daughter, but I require you to come close to me.

You see, when somebody whispers to us and they whisper quietly, you have to get really close to them in order to hear. And so the principle is yes, God is talking to us but He requires us and He wants us to learn how to quiet our minds, get our emotions under control and pray. Counsel with Him, talk to Him, but not just talk to Him, and petition Him and beg Him and plead with Him, but get still and listen to His response. Listen to what the Lord is responding, you know. And then when you believe you've heard from Him, you believe you've heard from Him, believe it. I mean, when you think He's spoken to you, know He's spoken to you. Believe He's spoken to you and then act on it. You know, James said you know, faith without works is dead. So if God speaks to us and He gives us a solution, what the Lord wants us to do is to act upon it. I sense in my spirit sometimes, well, some of it's just not in my spirit, some of it's logical. 

In our world today, it's, it's disturbing. Our world is disturbing. You know, not just gas prices and the, the political situation and uh, the- some of our leaders are very, very discouraging just to listen to them and the war in Ukraine and so many things happening that are so disturbing and, and discouraging. I mean, I'm so glad I'm a Christian. I'm so glad that I'm not of this world. I'm in this world but I'm not of this world. I'm glad that I have an answer. I'm glad that I have a savior, I'm glad that I'm part of another kingdom. And I want other people to understand there is another way, there's another kingdom, there's another place to live, there's another place to be. And you can have peace that passes all understanding in the midst of everything going on and we can seek first the kingdom of God, all these things will be added unto me. 

But in all of this, I know that you're struggling. I know that you’ve got some areas in your life and you don't know what to do. That's pretty normal. I've been there many, many times, I don't know what to do, I don't know how to handle this, and I'm kind of rebuking myself here as well because I don't know how to handle it. I mean, I don't know what to do. And I've said those words to my wife and to myself many times and all the time I'm saying I just don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix this, I don't know how to handle this. The whole time, God has an answer for me. God has wisdom for me, He just wants me to ask Him. And then He wants me to believe Him. He wants me to ask Him for the answer. That He wants to believe- wants me to believe that He has spoken. And if I believe He has spoken, I should act on what He's called me to do. So I guess maybe the, the basics of this is we must learn how to recognize his voice.

Jesus said My sheep know My voice and they follow Me. Well, we cannot follow Jesus if we don't recognize His voice. The good news is this, and I know that and you know that, so many times God is speaking to us and we miss it. We don't hear Him. We crowd His voice out with our thoughts, our, our emotions, our rationale, our intellect, our busyness, the tv; you know, whatever we're going through. We drown Him out. But He's talking to us. It's up to us to learn how to hear His voice. In my book Hear His Voice, be His Voice, I wrote quite a bit about that and I think one way to train yourself to hear his voice is to ask God basic simple questions and then test Him to see. If you've heard, I often tell this story about when I was trying to learn how to hear His voice to be better about listening to Him, I remember just asking Him God, please tell me where my car keys are. And then I would just get still and I would get quiet and I would listen and then all of a sudden, I would get a picture. Sometimes I would hear something, sometimes I would get a picture. And in that picture, I would just say okay, okay, I'm going to believe this was God and I would go to where, to that place that pictured in my mind, and there would be my car keys. What was the purpose of that? Well, it was good to find my car keys but it was also good to know that I actually heard God's voice. And so I'm training myself to hear God's voice

I remember once uh, one story that jumps out with me because what I'm trying to get at here is if we're going to have god's wisdom in these tough circumstances, we've got to be able to hear Him. I remember once I was sitting in the pastor's office and this was some years ago, and he had received a $300 check and an offering and he had lost it and he could not find this check anywhere. And he said Dr. Self, would you just pray and ask God where this check is? You know, I guess, you know, I'm just merciful guy. I said sure, we'll pray. I'm sitting in the pastor's office and I was praying, said Lord, would you just please show pastor… where this check is. Lord, would you just speak to us? We need to find this check, Lord. And as I was speaking, I got a picture of a briefcase and a notebook inside a briefcase and this has been years ago, you know, my memory is a little bit fuzzy on it. But I do remember the briefcase and I think there was a notebook inside the briefcase. And I spoke that to the pastor and the pastor said okay. So he picks up the briefcase, it was sitting on the floor beside his desk, opened up the briefcase and there was a notebook inside the briefcase. Inside the notebook was, you guessed it, was the check. Now of course, obviously that blessed him but it also blessed me to realize that while I did hear God's voice. 

So we can train ourselves to hear God's voice by asking God simple questions and listening and responding to simple things. And then when you get into the big situations, the tough situations, you can ask God the tough questions, the big questions, and you will know that you've heard Him. According to the scripture, God wants us to ask Him for wisdom. God wants us to ask Him for wisdom. He wants us to hear His voice and then He wants us to believe that He has spoken to us. Faith is a big thing with God, you know, this, throughout scripture you know, our grace and salvation is a free gift but it comes through faith. We're justified by faith. We're made righteous by our faith, we're saved through our faith. Faith is a big thing with God. Trusting Him, believing Him, and when He speaks, it requires faith to believe that God has spoken and I think God will honor you and honor your request when you have faith that He has spoken.

And faith is something like exercise. It has to be practiced. You know, you do not get in shape by going to the gym one day, you know, one time. It takes a lot of work to get physically in shape and I think it takes some work to train your mind and your spirit and your soul to recognize God's voice. We need God's wisdom. I need God's wisdom. If you're listening to this podcast, right now there's something going on in your life and you need to hear from God. To say you don't need to hear from God is ridiculous, we all need to hear what God is saying. What about your spouse? What about your, your child, your job, your health? God has an answer and He says, you know, what if you ask Him for the answer? If you ask Him for His wisdom concerning anything, He will give it to you but He says when I give it to you, believe Me. Know that I've given it to you and do not doubt that I have given it to you. This is the principle from the bible. And I want to pray with you today. This will be a shorter podcast but my heart goes out because I know you're listening to me and you're struggling. You've got an area and you don't know what to do, that's so common with mankind. Problems that we do not know the solution for, we do not know how to handle it; situations.

So Lord, I thank You for each one listening to this podcast. I thank You, Father, that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. I thank you, Father, you made us to be connected to You. You created us, us. You created us to have a relationship with You. You sent Jesus to be with us, to die for us, to give us that connection with You; to pay the price for our sins; to save us so we can be reconnected to You so we can hear You, so we can have that relationship with You. So Lord, we need wisdom right now. Father, there are people listening to me who don't know what to do. They're stuck, They're stuck, they don't know where to go. I thank you, Father, for Your wisdom. I thank You, Father, that You will increase our faith. I thank You, Father, you will speak to us. And right now I, I sense- I'm just going to be bold- I sense prophetically, there's, I'm hearing the name Jennifer, I hear the name Louise, I hear the name Michael; and Lord I ask You to speak to Jennifer, Louise and Michael, Father, right now. Father, show them, make it clear to them, Father, make it clear to them. Father, forgive our unbelief. Father, I thank you. Lord, I thank You, Father, for turn-around. I thank You for breakthrough, I thank You for those that are grieving right now. For the, the ones that have their family members who've just run away and disconnected. That, oh that disconnection, Father, is so painful. You made us to be connected in relationship but we're disconnected to too many people, Father. Lord, give us wisdom on how to re-establish that connection, what our part is. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father.

You know, we are made for deep intimate connection and Satan has used our flesh to disconnect us in so many ways so let me say this about the wisdom of God and I will not be before you long. You see, wisdom of God is about your part. Now if God has given us freedom to choose, there may be other people in your life and you're really praying that they will change, that they will reform, that they will get redeemed, that they will repent, whatever. But you cannot control that. You can pray for them but God's wisdom is always going to be about your part in a relationship, your problem, your part in solving the problem. What you need to do, not what other people need to do, does that make sense? God is interested in you. So, so many times we'll do our part and other people will not do their part and things don't seem to work out the way we think they should work out; but it's not because of you, it's because they made poor choices. But God's wisdom is always going to be about your part, your responsibility, what you need to do, what you need to say, what you need to pray, what your actions need to be. And whatever God speaks, just have wisdom with it. Have God's wisdom. Know that when God speaks, our responsibility is to believe. So what, what is our part? Again, ask Him for wisdom. Listen to Him, be quiet and listen to that still, small voice. Believe what you hear and act on what you hear.

Thank you for listening, this is Dr. Ray Self. Please, please, please check out my website; it's icmcollege.org. This is a college that I founded over 20 years ago. It's a Holy Spirit-filled, online seminary where I train ministers. We give away thousands of dollars in free scholarships to people who are struggling financially. You know, it's always grieved me that seminaries charge 30 and 40,000 dollars for a graduate degree, which eliminates 98% of all ministers out there. We do not do that. We're accredited, you know, our typical degree is about thirty five hundred dollars and then if a person can't even afford that we have scholarships available for them. But check it out, you know, if this is, this, if the Lord leads you, check out icmcollege.org. Maybe take some free lessons, we have those available. Get, get trained. We train counselors and ministers and prophets and pastors and evangelists. Get trained and equipped for the call of God in your life. That's my heart. I love you much, thank you so much for listening, it's been an honor and a privilege and I hope this podcast blesses you. That's all I want to do which is bless you. Good night, good day, good morning, adios, amigos. Bye-bye.

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