You Have Authority to Stop the Attack

Hello, welcome Self Talk, I'm your host Dr Ray Self. Thank you for being with me. This show is a little bit different. Every Tuesday morning for the last three years or so, I do a little Facebook live broadcast. It encourages people. I have a regular audience that tunes in at 9:30 a.m Eastern Time and listens to me give a little short word of encouragement. This is a word I gave on my Facebook live broadcast about spiritual authority, about the authority that Jesus has given us and how he expects us to exercise that. It's very critical for us if you're being attacked, if you're under oppression or if you're under some type of demonic attack that kind of, maybe will explain why you keep going through the same thing you're going through over and over and over again, this show is for you.

I thank you for listening to Self Talk with Dr Ray Self. Please check out the website for the show, it’s icmcollege.org/selftalk. Also, check out International College of Ministry. If you have a call of God on your life and you haven't fully answered it yet, you need to go to International College of Ministry and get trained for your call. It is affordable, it is anointed and you can work on your own schedule. That is icmcollege.org. God bless you and thank you for listening to today's show of Self Talk.

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Welcome to Self Talk with Dr Ray Self! So we're going to be podcasting today, amen? Thank you so much everybody for being here, uh, God bless all of you. Now this is exciting, so they've been telling me to do this so long so we're going to have a video and an audio with our podcast called Self Talk with Dr Ray Self. What a great name. We spent years thinking of that name. So this is about authority and the scripture we're reading today is, Jesus talking in the book of Luke and he tells his disciples, he says “behold, I give you authority over snakes and scorpions and all the work of the devil and nothing shall harm you”. So when Jesus gives you authority, things change. There's a lot of things about that we need to understand about the authority of Christ. He gave his disciples in that moment, authority over snakes and scorpions which means over demons and works of the devil.

Jesus said in Mark 16 “behold, these signs will follow those that believe: you will cast out demons…you will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover”.  So when Christ gives you authority to do something to act out of obedience is to act on that authority. Now, authority is not authority unless it is used. If you do not exercise your authority, then you have no authority. So, so many times we're praying to God saying “God, help me Lord. Help me Lord, do this Lord, do that”. But if the Lord has told you to do it and given you authority to do it, more than likely he's not going to answer your prayers because it's, it's like you, you tell your child to, you say “son, I want you to take out the trash”, I've given you authority to take the garbage to the curb and then you wait and your child does not do that but you've given him authority to do that. Matter of fact, you gave him a commandment to do that and he didn't do it. Well, you're not going to do it for him because this is something you told him to do.

I know it's a ridiculous uh, premise, but the thing applies with God. If God has told us to do something then he's more than likely not going to do it for you and one thing he's told us to do is to resist the devil so he'll flee from us. He's told us to cast out demons, he's told us that no- nothing shall harm us, he's given us authority over snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy and it shall not harm you. He's given us authority over snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy and nothing shall harm us. That's authority that he has given us. He's told us that in John, you know, 12:14, or is it 14:12? You know, these signs will follow those that believe. They will do in my name, they'll do the same works that I do and even greater works because I go to the Father. All these are things authority that God has given us to do and it's up to us to act upon it.

Sometimes I think we get culturally in the habit of praying and asking questions and asking God for things. “Lord, Lord I need help. I need, I need help for my finances; Lord I need help for my marriage; Lord I need help for my, I need help for my health; Lord I need help f- about my children; Lord I need help about my job” But sometimes what you're facing is a demonic assignment against you and this demonic assignment needs to be rebuked by you because Jesus has given you authority over snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy. So you may be praying to God about something that the enemy is doing against you, is caused by the power of the enemy, and you're not getting anywhere because you did not take authority over the power of the enemy, do you understand? 

You've been given authority over the power of the enemy and it's up to you to take that authority. So if I'm asking God to save my marriage, save my job, and what I'm facing is a demonic attack- now he can answer that prayer; he's God, he can do whatever he wants to do, okay? However, he's given us authority over that and so your prayers may not be answered because you're asking God to do something he told you to do. That sounds kind of hard but, but it's not hard. It's really good news.

Good morning Pam, good morning Thomasina, yeah, yeah, yeah, and Dr. T. and everybody. 

So it's time to do spiritual warfare, folks. We have…I've never seen such a rise of the spirit of the Antichrist. Let me tell you something, the spirit of the Antichrist is an evangelist. He is evangelizing his message all over the world today and we see it in Hollywood, we see it in the media, we see it in our schools, we see it in our politics, all over the place. His message is being evangelized and it is demonic, it is deceived, it is evil. And in the force behind this message is the devil and his demons because they are deceivers, okay? And the Bible says they will even deceive the very elect so one thing we must do for our nation is we must fight. We must take authority over the power of the enemy that is hurting our nation and hurting our children.

The greatest attack, the greatest attack that we are experiencing right now is the attack upon our kids. I, I just, I, I listen to young people and hear them and I hear their take on things and they're clueless. So many young people, they don't understand the word of God. They don't know the word of God. You know, we were raised in a culture where everybody knew the Bible, but not this cult- not this, not this, you know, generation, whichever one they're called, X, Millennial, whatever they're called. Nowadays they have different names for different, you know, decades. But we have been given authority over snakes and scorpions and all the work of the enemy. It's time for us to stand up and take our authority how do you do that? How is that how does that work? 

To me, it works something like this: I start off with a prayer. I start off with a prayer and my prayer may go: “Lord, I thank you for today. Lord, you said this is the day that you have given me and I shall rejoice and I'm glad in it. And Father, I thank you, Lord for that you have given me authority. Lord, I thank you Father. You have given authority to, to Pam and LaFondria and Thomasina, Father. Thank you, Lord, you’ve given authority, Father, to, to Linda and Ruth, Father. I thank you, Lord, you have given us authority. So Father, you have given me authority according to your word, Father, over snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy. So Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I, Ray Self, I rebuke this attack upon my children. I rebuke this attack upon my marriage. I command you Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ, get your hand off my marriage; get your hand off my life; get your hand off my health; get your hand off my finances. I rebuke you, I renounce you, I command your activity against me and against my family to stop now in the name of Jesus Christ. I said stop. Stop; go in the name of Jesus Christ. Get out in the name of Jesus Christ. Be gone in the name of Jesus Christ. We renounce your assignment, I renounce the assignment of the Antichrist, you evil spirits, against our nation, against our politicians, against our schools and our teachers. Father, we renounce this. We rebuke this in the name of Jesus Christ and we command this by the authority of the name above all names. By the authority of the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke, I renounce, I command this evil work of Satan to stop in my nation against my family, against my wife, against my kids, against my health. In the name of Jesus Christ, I take authority, Father, because you said you've given us a, authority. And so Father, according to your word and your name, we praise you Father, that authority is taken. Amen, amen.”

And that to me is how it's done and then, and then let me tell you something folks. Um, let me tell you, let me tell you, you- now, you've got to believe. You have to stand in faith. You know, I thank you Lord that you, you heard my prayer. Say: “Lord, I thank you that your word cannot return void”. And I know, and I know, and I know that this is truth, and I know that these attacks will stop. Now hear me again carefully. When you're taking authority, the devil will test your boundaries. He will test your boundaries- because he hasn't really read the book by Henry Cloud yet- but he will test your boundaries. He'll see if you're serious about this. He'll test you to see if you mean what you say and so you may have to repeat it and remind the devil yes, you mean what you say and he will stop now, in the name of Jesus Christ, and these attacks and this assignment will stop because you have the authority of Christ. Because Christ has given you authority. And you will remind the devil, maybe over and over again until he finally gets the idea that this assignment, this activity, will cease now; and he will go and he will be gone for the glory and the power and the name, and the authority of Jesus Christ.

I hope that makes sense to you. I hope that makes sense because I think it's something we need to do every day…every day, every day. The Lord show me something a few years ago. He said um, you know, I love sports. I'm a sports guy and uh, he, he was talking to me giving the example of a boxer. And if you've ever watched a boxing match, um, nobody's knocked out in the first round. Sometimes the opponent has to be hit and hit and hit multiple times before they get knocked out and sometimes that is the way it is with the devil. You have to punch him and punch him and punch him till finally he falls down and he goes away. The Lord also showed me an example some years ago of a wall, a brick wall, and if you, if- there's a thing called a sledgehammer. It's a very big heavy hammer, and a sledgehammer will break down a brick wall but the brick wall is not broken down with one blow. It means you have to hit it, and hit it, and hit it, and hit it and if you hit that wall enough with that sledgehammer, the wall will come crumbling down. It will- why? Because you have authority, you have the power of Christ, you have the Holy Spirit living in you and the word of God which you have to know and believe and understand.

It’s, it’s, it's your authority. You've been given authority but authority is useless if you don't believe it and you don't act upon it. Remember James said faith without works is dead. That means not only do you know the word and you believe the word, but you do something with the word. And I'm excited this morning because you know what, I'm tired of this attack. I mean, I've been hammered, I've been attacked and so have you, your family, your kids, your finances, your health, you name it. Our nation. I'm sick of it the evil deception. One of the greatest attacks upon our nation today is blind eyes. There are very good people who just cannot see the truth and therefore they act in ignorance. That's because they're blind and they're deceived and so what we can rebuke that spirit of blindness off of them. 

You know, maybe you need discernment to know what spirit is operating. Maybe you need discernment to know what attack there is upon your family and upon you. Well, you know what? Pray for discernment. “Lord give me discernment. Lord give me discernment. Give me your discernment, amen? Let me see what it is.” Now I know some people, let me warn you about this, we're going to get ready to close, um, I know some people ask for the spirit of discernment and then pray “Lord, please take this away from me. Oh Lord, no more discernment please.” But the gift of discernment in Corinthians, it's the ability to discern what spirit is operating. Now that means you can discern it's, if it's the Holy Spirit or if it's a demonic spirit and many times, exactly what demonic spirit it is.

Now, if you do discern the demonic spirit and you know exactly what spirit it is, that's a big advantage and you can rebuke and attack that exact spirit and it's very powerful. However, if you do not discern the exact spirit or what spirit is operating, you can still pray against anything not of Jesus Christ and tell it to go, amen? You may not discern exactly what it is but you know something's not right. You know there's something that's unexplained, you cannot you, you know that something keeps happening that shouldn't be happening. You keep having all this calamity and all this what they call generational curses and all this stuff happening. This should not be happening, you're sick of it so you just take authority and you command this assignment to stop, even if you don't discern exactly the name of the demon, amen? 

You know what, thank you guys and, and again, this is uh, we're trying to do something different. I'm podcasting now with Charisma Magazine, it's called Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. So we're recording a podcast and so you guys are going to be world famous. And the podcast comes out every Thursday morning at 5 a.m but it stays, it stays online. You get to the podcast, you can go to um, there's the podcast website right there, icmcollege.org/selftalk. You can listen to every single episode I've ever recorded, but this goes on Google, it goes on Audible, it goes on Spotify, it goes on Apple Play and hopefully many, many, many thousands of people will hear that, you know what? Jesus has given us authority over the works of the enemy and it's time that we take it. It's time that we exercise it. We cannot be lazy anymore. We've got to be proactive and active, amen? That means we to, we, we got to get on the offensive. Everything we've done so far is defensive. We need to start attacking. I mean, he's attacking, why are we not attacking back in the name of Jesus Christ? 

And we do this all not to be, you know, all caught up in, in war but to know that war sometimes and most of the time will precede peace and I want peace and I want abundance and I want that for you. But we may have to fight more for it, okay? But remember, you're fighting for something wonderful. You're fighting for peace and freedom from demonic oppression for you and your family and your country, amen, amen, amen. 

Hey real quickly, got a cool class coming up January 17th on Tuesday nights at seven Central, eight Eastern. We're starting a class called Moving in Signs, Wonders and Miracles taught by Kathy Coppola, Apostle Kathy Coppola out of California who has her own uh, TV show, radio show, podcast, an incredible church; people are going into her church like, in wheelchairs and before the service even starts are starting to walk. I mean, they're seeing these incredible miracles in a church and she's going to be teaching us on signs, wonders, and miracles beginning January 17th. Check out our website, you can enroll in that. God bless all of you, thank you so much.

Anna, Linda, if I haven't greeted you, you’re all greeted, you, you're all blessed in Jesus name. So Father, I thank you Lord that you've given us authority over snakes and scorpions, all the works of the enemy. Lord, forgive us for not taking that authority; for being lazy maybe, Father, or procrastinating, Father, we, Lord we make no excuses. Forgive us for not taking authority and Father, we purpose in our hearts right now that from this day forward, we're going to take authority, Father, and we're going to do this, Father, for your glory. We're going to take aus- authority over snakes and scorpions and all the works of the enemy as you told us in the book of Luke, Father. 

And Lord we, we're going to do this for your glory and for your honor, Father because Lord, we love you, we praise you and we thank you for the amazing gift of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that lives within us. And I thank you, Father, especially for each person listening to me. I pray blessings and favor over them, in Jesus name. I thank you, Father. I thank you, Father. Lord, I thank you for Kathleen, Father in the name of Je- Kathleen, you have a just a wonderful spirit ofbcounsel upon you. I think the Lord's going to use you more and more and more and more to set captives free. You have an anointing on you to counsel in, Jesus name. Lord, I thank you Father, for Cecilia. I praise you Father, the anointing of God is upon her. She's an author, she's a teacher, I think you're just getting a little, few prophetic things here. Father, in the name of Je- Anna, yeah, I just printed your diploma, Anna. Thank you Father for Anna. Lord, I thank you Father in Jesus name, Father, the anointing of God upon her. Thank you for Dr. LaFondria, Father. I thank you Jesus. Uh, Lord I thank you, Father. 

I thank you Father that there's much more for us and Lord, let your spirit manifest greater than ever before. Everyone listening, I pray that this will not be an ordinary show, this will be supernatural podcast and a supernatural broadcast that everybody here receives a special anointing of the Holy Spirit as they listen to your voice, Father, hopefully speaking through me. In Jesus name, amen. 

God bless all of you. Thank you so much. Great turnout today and check out the podcast, it comes out on Thursdays. Um, I mean, there's, there's a bunch of them. Tt's pre-recorded, it comes out every Thursday. God bless all of you. Amen, amen, adios, love you.

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Thank you for listening to today's show. It is time that we start taking the authority that Christ has given us and resist the devil and watch him flee from us. It is time for us to live in peace and abundance and a life that Christ called us to. Spiritual warfare is not fun but it is necessary if we're going to have the promises of God for ourselves, our family, our community and even our nation. So please, check out uh, on my website icmcollege.org/selftalk. There you can subscribe, give me a review, that really helps us. We have a show, a store there with all kinds of cool stuff you can purchase, you know, we have courses online, uh, on the store that you can purchase that I think will be very interesting for you. Counseling courses and courses on spiritual warfare and things such as that. So I love you and God bless you. Thank you for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self.