The Power Behind Faith
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 1008 aired on December 15, 2024
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes stick around. It will be about 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of
education but no manipulation because we don’t try to con you. We’re not trying to hustle
money. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We just want to give you information that
hopefully will help you verify and identify God’s plan for your life. If you can do this, then you
can orient and adjust to the plan, it’s up to you. What we’re going to study today is very
important. I think it’s something I haven’t covered before. Before we begin our study this
morning, I’d like to thank all of you who have called or written encouraging me as we move into
the 2025 broadcast year. To be honest with you, I really thought I’d never be around this long but
it’s obvious the Lord has other plans. One of the verses that encourages me is found in Jeremiah
29:11,
“‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not
for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.’”
He knows His purpose and His plan for us and
the question is, do we know, understand and trust His plan? Two key words, know and trust. Do
we know His plan and do we trust His plan? If you stick with me today, I think we’re going to
understand what this means. We can take comfort in this divine provision that God has a plan for
us to prosper us, not to harm us, to give us hope in the future. We can take comfort in this
provision. However, there is one thing we must do before we can take comfort in this passage.
This one thing is found in Proverbs 3:5-6 where it says,
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will
make your paths straight.”
It’s very obvious that before we can believe Jeremiah 29:11, we have
to trust what God says. Let’s take a look at the passage in Proverbs 3:5-6. It says we have to trust
Him with all of our heart and submit to Him. Listen to the words again,
“Lean not on your own
understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him
[submit to Him].” This is positive volition.
This is faith to trust and we have to have some insight and understanding. Don’t lean on your
own understanding, human viewpoint. Let’s get some principles on these two verses. The fact is
that God has a plan for us and we have to trust Him to learn what the plan is. Here are the
principles. One, trust is another word for a very strong type of faith. The Hebrew word is
batah
and it’s a verb. Figuratively it means to be confident, to be sure or to be secure. This particular
Hebrew verb is what we call a qal imperative. The imperative means it is a divine command, not
a request. God is telling you through the writer of Proverbs to trust in Him with all your heart.
Two, make no mistake about this, if you fail to trust God, you are sinning. Failure to trust God is
a sin for the believer. You can see where we sin many times when we have things that happen
and we question why, are angry it happened, and we don’t trust God about it. Do you think God
overlooks the small details in your life? Absolutely not, He’s aware of them. This is what
Jeremiah 29:11 says,
“‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for
welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’”
You must trust Him and you must
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not fall into the sin of mistrust. Three, the passage makes it clear that we are to 100% trust and be
confident in His plan, not our own instincts. Four, the action part of trust is the word submit. Did
you hear this when I read it to you?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on
your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him
[submit to Him].” The action part of
the word trust is the word submit. You can’t trust if you don’t submit. This indicates the act of
submission on our part. But before we can submit, here’s another word, we’ve got to have
confidence in God’s plan and design for our life. How can you trust God and how can you submit
to God and His plan if you don’t have confidence? Where do you get this confidence? Five,
confidence is developed and strengthened by means of spiritual growth. Psalm 32:8 says,
“I will
instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon
you.”
If we are going to submit and have confidence, we have to learn something. Six, spiritual
growth requires instruction. I just read it,
“I will instruct you and teach you.”
This is why we
have a Bible and this is why we have men who have the gift of pastor-teacher, Ephesians 4:11.
Seven, it is through Scripture that God counsels us. In other words God guides us through
Scripture. If you have confidence and you trust Him, you will understand this. 2 Timothy 2:15
says,
“Be diligent
[study]
to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need
to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of truth.”
The Lord wants you to have confidence
in His guidance, confidence in His plan and to trust Him and not try to do things in your own
free will. This means you’re not stepping outside the plan of God, trying to figure it out for
yourself. God has a plan and what is His plan? Where do I get this?
“For I know the plans that I
have for you.”
God has a plan for your life, a time to live and a time to die. A time to be happy
and a time to be unhappy. He has a plan for you and He declares this in Jeremiah 29:11. It is not
to hurt you. It is to prosper you and give you confidence in a great future. Do you trust Him? Do
you have confidence to trust Him? Do you know enough of the Word of God to trust Him? Have
you grown spiritually enough to let Him counsel you? Eight, spiritual growth produces insight
and discernment. What are these two words, insight and discernment? They are a byproduct of
understanding. When you understand God’s plan, you have insight into the future and
discernment about what God is doing. This type of thinking is called in Proverbs 2:1-6 wisdom.
“My son, if you will receive my words
[teaching]
and treasure my commandments within you
[learning]
, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; for if you cry
for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver and search for her as
for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of
God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
How
can you trust God if you don’t understand God? How can you love God if you don’t know God?
Nine, wisdom is necessary if you wish to be a winner believer, not just some sort of
benchwarmer. There’s a football season going on. We’ve got a lot of benchwarmers that never
get in the game. God cannot put you in the game if you don’t understand His plan and if you
don’t trust His decisions. Let’s get to the matter of trust. What does it mean to trust God? Ten,
trust is the strength of your faith. Faith requires trust. What does trust require? That you have
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confidence that God is not going to harm you, confidence that God has a good plan for you and
this confidence gives you comfort. Listen to what Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6,
“For I am
confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of
Christ Jesus.”
Confidence is your trust in action. You can’t trust God if you don’t have
confidence in God. If you don’t have some knowledge of God’s plan, how can you have
confidence in God? How can you have faith if you don’t understand God? Eleven, confidence
requires courage. The young shepherd boy David who walked out to face the Philistine giant
named Goliath was full of confidence. He demonstrated great courage when he faced that giant
with a slingshot when all of Saul’s army was full of cowards, running and hiding. For 40 days
and 40 nights when the giant came out to challenge them, nobody would fight him until finally
one teenager with confidence and faith stepped up and did the job. Twelve, in Matthew 8:23-27
we find the disciples had no faith due to their lack of confidence in God’s plan. They simply did
not trust the Lord’s decision to cross the Sea of Galilee with storm clouds on the horizon. Do you
hear what I’m saying? They had no confidence, no trust and no faith. Listen as I read Matthew
8:23-27,
“When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a
great storm in the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was
asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing!’
[This is
a problem, no faith and no confidence.]
He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you men of little
faith?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The
men were amazed, and said, ‘What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
Him?’”
He was the God-man, undiminished diety and true humanity in one body forever. The
key to this is He never used His deity to sustain His humanity. He did use His deity to calm the
sea. Yes, He was God. He just stood up and said, “Stop” and that was the end of it. It slicked off.
But He never ever used His deity to sustain His humanity because He would have been doing
something we couldn’t do. He left us a perfect example. Thirteen, the Lord actually called them,
“Men of little faith.”
They were short-time trusters. They looked at the circumstances and not
their Savior. Fear replaced faith. Thus, in fear they quit thinking and they allowed their emotions
to take over because emotions don’t think, they just react. In any situation in your life when you
have adverse circumstances like storms or whatever they may be, you can become afraid and quit
thinking. You can react with emotional sins or you can have faith, have confidence and respond
with Scripture. Fourteen, our job when we’re in the storms of life is to respond with faith, not
react with fear. This faith gives us the power to overcome the fear, but listen carefully. Your faith
has to be based on something stronger than just hope. It has to be based on something that is very
important, your love for your Heavenly Father who loves you. If your faith is not based on your
love for your Heavenly Father, it won’t work. In Jude 1:20-21,
“But you, beloved, building
yourselves up on your most holy faith
[faith can increase, you can build up your faith]
, praying in
the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord
Jesus Christ to eternal life.”
Building yourself up in faith and keeping yourself in God’s love are
the keys to these verses. Here’s a question I want to ask you now. How do you build up your faith
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and what motivates you to do this? 1 John 4:18 says,
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love
casts out fear.”
Remember I said, faith defeats fear and personal love for God is your faith.
When you have personal love for the Father, then your faith builds up as you learn Scripture and
you have confidence and trust in God’s plan for your life. Go back to that verse in Jeremiah,
“For I know the plans that I have for you.”
Do you trust Him? Do you have confidence in Him?
Do you have the courage to let God take control and you quit trying to run the show? Here is the
secret to the power of faith. It is your personal love for God, not just some words spoken as a
token recognition like, “Oh, I love God,” but a genuine trust that you have in His plan and in His
provision. God loves you and God wants you to love Him so much so that you trust Him. 1 John
4:19 says,
“We love, because He first loved us.”
This is the problem, how can you love
somebody you don’t trust? How can you love someone you don’t see? How can you love
someone you don’t even know? Listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ said in John 14:21,
“He who
has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me
[obedience is the proof that you
love Him]
; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father and I will love him and will disclose
Myself to him.”
Remember I just asked you, how can you love someone you can’t see? You will
see the Lord Jesus Christ manifested through the Word and in your life,
“Christ in you, the hope
of glory”
(Colossians 1:27). When you have this personal love for God the Father, the one who
has His commands and keeps them is the one who loves Him. When you have this trust and
confidence in His plan, then He reveals Himself to you. The motivation for us to obey God’s
Word is our personal love for Him, more than what the world offers, more than what our family
offers, more than what money offers or circumstances offer. Do you really love God so much so
that you trust Him, have confidence in Him and have courage under intense situations in your
life? This personal love for God is the door to spiritual greatness. Personal love for God is the
power behind your faith. Personal love for God is the confidence you have to walk through the
valley of the shadow of death as the psalmist says in Psalm 23:4,
“I fear no evil, for You are with
me.”
The invisible presence of God in your life is manifested by your faith. We need to get a
couple more principles about this. When you have personal love for God, then you have extreme
confidence in God’s plan for your life. What a wonderful way to live. We’re talking about taking
the monkey off your back and putting the monkey on the Lord’s back. Let Him handle the
details. Let Him handle the circumstances. When you don’t get what you want in your promotion,
when you don’t get what you want in your salary, when you don’t get what you want in whatever
you want, do you have confidence that God is in control, that He has a plan for you? I can
remember one time my wife and I suddenly had to move from a house we were renting. We
didn’t have a choice. It was a fearful thing because we were told we had two weeks to get out
and find another place to live and at first I had no confidence in God’s plan, I had no courage.
But you know what? It turned out that the Lord had a better place for us to be, a cheaper place in
a better location. I failed the test because I didn’t have confidence in His plan. His plan was
manifested and we took advantage of it but I had to learn the hard way to trust Him, not look at
the details or at the circumstances, but in faith, love my Lord and know He’s not trying to harm
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me. He’ll do what’s best for me, promote me and bless me. Confidence from love motivated faith
gives you a great peace that passes all understanding. Philippians 4:7,
“And the peace of God,
which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
What a wonderful thing to have the peace of God. It’s beyond the understanding of your
neighbors and your family when you have this sort of peace in God’s plan. You love Him that
much that you trust Him and you will find as you get older you’re going to have to come to this
conclusion. Do you really trust Him to handle your sicknesses and your problems you are going
through? Do you have confidence that God is in control or do you want to panic? Do you want to
scream, get afraid and let fear take over. No. You want to let faith take over because you are
motivated by your love for your Heavenly Father who promises He loves you, He has a plan for
you and that He will not abandon you. The Lord Jesus Christ said,
“I will never desert you, nor
will I ever forsake you”
(Hebrews 13:5).
“And I give eternal life to them, and they will never
perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand”
(John 10:28). Galatians 2:20,
“I have been
crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I
live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Satan’s number one objective in regard to your spiritual life is to stop you from replicating the
life of Christ. He doesn’t want you to replicate the Lord Jesus Christ, to re-present Him to your
family or to your friends. This is what I just read to you in Galatians 2:20,
“Christ lives in me.”
Paul replicated Christ. He re-presented Christ. He said, “The life I now live in this body, I live by
faith, trust, confidence and courage in the plan of God. Christ lives in me.” It was no longer
Paul’s life. It was the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and it’s supposed to be that way with us. We
are not living for ourselves. We are living for Him. It is no longer about you or about me. It’s
about Christ. Do you love God enough to understand this? Christ lives in you. It is no longer
your life, it’s His life as you replicate His life to your friends. He said,
“I live in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved me.”
He said, “I live by faith motivated by His love for me.”
His faith is motivated by His love for me and this is called reciprocal love motivation. We love
Him because He first loved us. Here’s another principle. God requires you to love Him and to
trust Him and this is the proof of your faith. Hebrews 11:6,
“And without faith it is impossible to
please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those
who seek Him.”
If you will take a moment and read Hebrews 11, you will see the recorded
testimony of faith warriors in Scripture. Listen to their testimony. I’ll read a few verses from
Hebrews 11:33-34,
“Who by faith
[this is love motivated faith]
conquered kingdoms, performed
acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put
foreign armies to flight.”
How did they do this? By love motivated faith. What a wonderful way
to live. What a wonderful strength you have. Your faith is directly related to your love for your
Lord. In closing, let me ask you this question. It’s a fair question. How’s your faith today? Do
you worry? Are you afraid? Do you understand the God you claim that you love? For many
individuals the adverse circumstances overcome their thinking and rob them of their trust and
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their confidence in the plan of God for their lives because they don’t really love Him. They are
looking at the situation. The adverse circumstances short circuit their faith. The time is coming
when we are going to be called to the witness stand and we will be cross-examined by Satan. Our
faith will be tested and only our personal love for the Father will sustain us at that time so I’m
asking you, do you love God? Do you trust Him? Listen to what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians
4:8-10,
“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body
the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”
This is how we
represent Christ to our generation, revealing Christ through our own trials, through our own tests,
through the circumstances that we face in our lives. What was this lesson about? Faith. Do you
love God? Do you trust God? Do you have confidence in God’s plan? Do you have courage
letting this love motivate you? This is the power of your faith. The power of your faith is your
personal love for God. If you don’t have personal love for God, you’re going to be a weak
believer. Personal love for God is one of the problem-solving devices that we talk about on the
FLOT line of your soul. It’s one-half of the virtue love package. The other half is impersonal
love for all mankind. We have personal love for God the Father which is our motivational virtue
and our functional virtue is impersonal love for all mankind. I hope you’re listening. I hope
you’re learning. I hope you’re figuring this out. The power of your faith is in your personal love
for God. I don’t know if anybody has ever told you this before but I hope you learned it today.
Do you love Him?
