Join Rick Hughes as he addresses the consequences of resistance to spiritual authority and the importance of nurturing a hunger for truth in your life. Emphasizing the difference between organized religion and personal faith, Rick challenges listeners to develop a deeper connection with God’s Word. Navigate through biblical principles that highlight the vital role faith and knowledge play in personal growth and discover how to protect yourself from the adversities of the world while pursuing divine happiness.
Welcome to The Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 01 :
good morning and welcome to the flatline i’m your host rick hughes and for the next few minutes i’d like to invite you to stay tuned it’ll be a short 30 minutes of motivation some inspiration some education and we always do that without any manipulation that’s right we don’t manipulate people we don’t have any solicitations we’re not trying to raise money we’re not trying to hustle you to join something we’re just trying to give you some accurate information Information that will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if you can do that, then you have the freedom and the privacy to orient and adjust to the plan. That’s up to you. But this show, titled The Flotline, F-L-O-T, It’s designed to remind you of biblical truths and introduce you to a new way of studying and learning God’s Word. And in just a few short minutes, I’ve got to get that done. But it all starts with the good news that Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, has redeemed us out of the slave market of sin. So our debt to God for our sin has been paid, and we are free of the penalty of sin and the power of sin. through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so if you receive Christ as your savior, it is in effect the single most significant decision you’ll ever make. And God accepts the offering he made on your behalf. The free gift from God is eternal life. The Bible says in Titus 3, five through seven, not by works of righteousness, which we’ve done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord, being justified by his grace that we should be made heirs according to the hope or the confidence of eternal life. And that’s the most wonderful promise in the world. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It’s a gift from God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Who doesn’t like a free gift? And the free gift is made compliments of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, where he alone paid the penalty for our sin. We couldn’t do it. We could never satisfy the justice of God. But he did it because he who knew no sin, the Bible says, was made sin for us. Today in the Flatline, remember the Flatline is made up of 10 unique problem-solving devices that you can learn and deploy in the thinking compartment of your soul. And if you do that, if you learn these 10 problem-solving devices, then you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside sources of stress. That’s why we always say adversity is inevitable and stress is, of course, optional. So today, as we talk about developing a floodline in your soul, learning those unique problem-solving devices, beginning with rebound. How do we solve the problem of sin? We have to rebound. We have to confess our sin. That’s why the Bible says if we will confess our sin, 1 John 1, 9, that he’s faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to purify us from all wrongdoing. That’s a decision you have to make. Your life is made up of many decisions. I’ve made decisions and I’ve gone down the my way highway and I’m sure you’ve done the same thing. And we are all responsible for our decisions. This is something interesting that I’d like to talk to you about today so that you would understand why we make the decisions that we make. And it is basically because God gave us a volition. Volition, V-O-L-I-T-I-O-N. He gave you a chooser or a decider. And that volition is yours and yours alone, and thus you are responsible for every decision that you make. Joshua gave a challenge to the people of Israel after they had gone through the promised land, taken the promised land, and he was about to come to his time of departure where he went to be face-to-face with the Lord. And this is what he said in Joshua 24, 15. You remember Joshua, the leader of Israel after the death of Moses. Joshua went into the battle of Jericho and on forth, so on. He said this, he said, choose you this day who you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. This is something that you must do also. You must decide who you will serve. Now you can serve the flesh, We have that for sure. The flesh has all sorts of lust patterns and all sorts of desires. Lust for money, lust for sex, lust for power, lust for approbation, lust for drugs, lust for whatever. And you can serve that lust pattern if you want to. or you can serve God. If you’ve made a decision to believe in Jesus Christ, my advice would be to serve God. This is exactly what Joshua, excuse me, it’s exactly what Joshua was telling the people of Israel. You choose this day, but quit beating around the bush. Quit walking the border, you know. Either get with it or get out of it. But quit playing the game. And so many Christians play the game. It’s the nod to God crowd. Hello, God. Goodbye, God. See you next week, God. That’s a conventional Christian. And they make a caricature out of Christ by living like that. And so God gave you a volition. Here’s some principles that I’d like to give you. Number one. God gave each of us a completed soul. And in the format of that soul is your volition. So you have a body. Many people have short bodies, tall bodies, skinny bodies, fat bodies. You know, I have a friend. He can eat anything. He doesn’t gain a pound. I can smell chocolate cake and gain three. So, I mean, that’s not fair, is it? But God gave each of us a body. And he gave us a soul. And in our soul, we have mentality. We have the ability to think, logic, reason, choose, decide. He gave us a volition, the chooser. That volition is he did not make us into little automatons. He gave us a conscience. And this is where we program the conscience of our young children so they won’t self-destruct. And we give them good norms and we give them good standards that they can live by in their life. So God gave you, in your soul, a mentality, a volition, a conscience, a self-consciousness. You’re aware of yourself. This is something a dog doesn’t have. A dog doesn’t have a self-consciousness. If a dog looks at himself in a mirror, he doesn’t know he’s looking at himself. You would. You’d say, that’s me. I know me. So God gave us a completed soul, and in the format of that soul is volition, that’s point one. Point two, volition can be negative, that’s minus, or it can be positive, that’s plus. Negative volition is, no, I will not. Positive volition is, yes, I will. And so Joshua, when he says, choose you this day whom you will serve, he says either you’re going to say yes or either you’re going to say no, but you’re going to quit beating around the bush. Three, in a lost man’s life, that’s a man who has not accepted Christ as his Savior, a man that does not have eternal life through Christ. In the lost man’s life, negative volition, is refusal to accept the gospel or the good news that Jesus Christ was a sacrifice for our sin. He doesn’t believe that. He rejects it. Some people are called agnostics, ag meaning no and gnostic meaning knowledge. He’s a no knowledge. And some people in their own arrogance like to call themselves atheist. And they declare there is no God. even though they didn’t go to every planet in the universe, they didn’t go every place in the universe and make sure God wasn’t there. See, for you to say there is no God, you’ve got to be God yourself, because you’ve got to check out every inch of the universe, because if you miss God and he’s there, you’re in trouble. So what you say is, I don’t believe there’s a God. That’s the same thing that it takes to become a Christian, faith. You have faith that God does not exist as an atheist. And you have faith that Christ died for you as a Christian. And so that’s why the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith. So a lost man has faith in his negative volition and he refuses to accept the good news of the sacrifice of Christ for our sin. Point four. In the believer’s life, that’s your life and my life, that negative volition is refusal to learn and obey God’s word, even though we have been told to do that. We’ve been told to study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. My pastor’s been teaching a particular passage in John 15, 25 about abiding in Christ. And if we don’t abide in Christ, we have negative volition. We’re not growing. We’re like the vine that’s withering on the branch he’s been teaching. And it’s a great analogy from the Bible, a great metaphor for a believer out of fellowship with Christ. And if we refuse to learn God’s Word, study to show thyself approved unto God, as the Bible says, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as the Bible says. but you have a lot of excuses, I’m busy, I’m raising children, I’m on the go, I don’t have time to do that, then you have negative volition. I know people that listen to the teaching of the Word of God in their car as they go to work every day. As a matter of fact, you can access these radio shows on your cell phone and play them through your car’s Bluetooth if you have that because it’s all on the internet. Or you can sit down at night with a cup of coffee and get a Bible study DVD. Or you can get up in the morning like I do, early 5.30 in the morning and listen to a DVD taught by a well-qualified pastor where you can learn God’s Word and hopefully apply it into your life. But if you refuse to learn it and you use an excuse like I don’t have time, I’m too busy, then what you’re doing is you’re going on negative volition to God’s mandate for you. And point five, under the biblical law of volitional responsibility, that’s a bigger word now, volitional responsibility, it means you’re responsible for your decisions. Under that law, you must take responsibility for your own decisions. So here’s the principle. We have the ability to make ourselves miserable, by making bad decisions in regard to people and circumstances. Did you hear me? We have the ability to make ourself miserable by making bad decisions in regards to people and circumstances. Volitional responsibility, what does that mean? It means, point one, that each one of us must take the responsibility for our decisions and not blame other people for our misery or the suffering that we are enduring. Point two, we all make decisions every day about our activities, but we base those decisions on our motives and our desires. I made a decision yesterday, it was Monday, and I decided I wanted to go fishing on Monday, That was a desire. That was a motive to go catch some fish, and I did, and I had a wonderful time. I made that decision. I made a decision this morning. What would I wear when I came to my office? And you made decisions too. And then I made a decision about studying God’s Word this morning. Did you? Did you? I’m not talking about a little short devotional. I’m talking about sitting under a well-qualified pastor, getting your Bible, getting a notebook, and letting him feed you God’s Word. In Galatians 6-7, the Bible gives a warning. It says, don’t be deceived. God will not be mocked. Whatever man sows, that he’s going to reap. And that’s volitional responsibility. The Bible says, if you sow to the wind, you’re going to reap the whirlwind. And that happens in a lot of lives. People that ignore the word of God and make consistent bad decisions because they don’t pay any attention to how God warned them. You see, the Bible is a warning. God doesn’t want to make your life miserable. He wants to make your life enjoyable. He wants to give you great benefit and great blessing in time. But when you go against his will, when you go against his plan as a believer in Jesus Christ and refuse to learn his word, then you don’t know what your options are. You don’t understand the geographical will of God. You don’t understand the viewpoint will of God. You don’t understand a lot of things, and so you’re short-circuited. You’re disadvantaged because you didn’t learn the Word of God. You can’t even use the faith rest drill effectively, problem-solving device number three, if you don’t at least know some of the 7,000 promises in the Bible. That’s why, by the way, we put together a promise notebook about the size of a telephone book. If you’d like to have one, let us know. We’ll ship it out to you free of charge. But you’ve got to know those promises because that’s where the strength of your faith comes from. So one of the causes for our bad decisions in our life, just one, not all of them, but one cause is subjective arrogance, subjective arrogance, where we overestimate ourselves. our abilities, and we fail to see ourselves in the light of reality. You think you’re something you’re not. You know, an arrogant person has an unrealistic self-image. He looks in the mirror and he sees what he thinks he is. He doesn’t see what he really is. And if he has those unrealistic self-image, he has unrealistic expectations. In other words, he wants to be treated in a way he’s not worthy of being treated. and he will make many bad decisions due to his subjective arrogance in his life. The first bad decision is the decision related to the gospel. Listen to what the Bible says in John 3.36. He that believes on the Son has everlasting life, and he that believes not, the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him forever. There’s positive volition and negative volition in that verse. He that believes on the Son, that’s positive volition at salvation, has everlasting life. He that believes not, that’s negative volition at gospel hearing, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Another principle is that bad decisions in relation to the laws of establishment Believers and unbelievers alike can make this. The laws of establishment are what God set in motion for the orderly function of the human race. Things like volition, marriage, family, nationalism. And here’s what the Bible says in Romans 13, one and two. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. That’s positive volition. You must submit to the authority of the rulers of your land. This goes on to say there’s no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Therefore, verse two, whoever resists the power resists the ordinances of God and they shall receive to themselves judgment. Now let’s back up. There is no power but of God? Are you telling me that God could have stopped Donald Trump from being president had he wanted to? Yes. Could God have stopped Obama from being president if he wanted to? Yes. Did God allow both of these men to sit on the presidency of the United States of America? Yes. And so when this says there is no power but of God, if you say God made a mistake, God should not allow that man to live, God should not allow that man to be president, then you’re saying that you’re smarter than God. And so the next verse says, whoever resists the power, that’s the person that God put there, they resist the ordinances of God and they will receive judgment to themselves because they’ll make bad, bad, bad decisions. Here’s a little word of advice for any Christian that’s listening to me. Stay out of political commentary. you can vote for who you want to vote for you can believe in who you want to believe in but the bible clearly says that cursed is the man that trusteth in man who makes flesh his strength no man can change the course of the history of america only you if you have positive volition If you grow to be a mature believer, you will join what’s called the pivot of mature believers. You will be the strength of the nation. You will have an invisible impact as a mature believer in the future of this country, and blessing by association will come from your life. It doesn’t have anything to do with who the president is or is not. It has to do with you. Now, if he’s a president, God allowed him to be president, but human viewpoint doesn’t believe that. Human viewpoint thinking is called a position of weakness. You know, the cosmic system, or the devil’s world, we talk about it, it gives out false information freely, and quite frankly, the majority of people that hear it take the bait. I mean, when I go fishing, I use a bait. Sometimes I’ll use a topwater bait and tease and trick the fish until they eventually strike it. The cosmic system has bait, and Satan will tease you and trick you until you take the bait. Hunger for truth in this nation. Hunger to understand God’s plan. Good old USA, that sort of hunger where people are hungry for the word of God is few and far between. I have been in the ministry going on 50 years, and I do not see a lot of positive volition, a lot of hunger for truth. That doesn’t mean I don’t see organized religion, Organized religion has a tremendous following for sure, but the majority of those who attend a local church usually just go through the ritual and there’s not really any reality to it after they leave on Sunday. Jeremiah, the prophet of God, faced a generation of negative volition, and listen to what he said about that. For my people, Jeremiah 4.22, God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, My people are foolish. They have not known me. They are stupid children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. My pastor has said, and I like the way he said it, in America today, everything good has now become evil, and everything that used to be evil has now become good. And that’s true. In Jeremiah 6.15, God speaking again through the prophet Jeremiah, were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed. Neither could they even blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall at the time that I visit them. They shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Hosea, the prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel, said it like this. My people, God says through Hosea, are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you rejected knowledge, I will reject you, and you will no longer be a priest for me because you forgot the laws of your God, and I will forget your children. Solomon wrote in the Proverbs, Proverbs 1, 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise this wisdom and instruction. That’s negative volition, negative volition, negative volition, and it is predominant and prevalent in America today. Your positive volition to the word of God will determine the course of your life. Jeremiah 17.10 again, I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the conscience to give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doing. In other words, God knows what you’re thinking. He’s omniscient. God is omniscient. He’s all-knowing. He knows exactly what you’re thinking. He knows what your motives, what your intentions, and what your desires are. And the things that come into your life are the result of the decisions that you make and the motives that caused you to do it. Now, if you want to make the right decision, if you want to have a life full of happiness, prosperity, a wonderful life, Then take in some divine viewpoint thinking by learning the mind of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2.16, who has known the mind of the Lord so he can instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. And in Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. Well, that’s a pretty big statement. How can I take the mind out of Christ and put it into me? Well, I gotta have an attitude of humility to start with. And without humility, you’re not teachable. Humility is teachability. So if you have some humility, which means you orient to authority of God, you orient to the authority of the Word of God, you orient to the authority of your pastor who teaches you God’s Word, then you develop your faith by hearing God’s Word taught on a consistent basis. But no one will ever grow to spiritual maturity getting 30 minutes a week. no one will ever grow to spiritual maturity coming twice a week you must eat every day you can’t grow if you don’t feed every day and on the word of god it’s the same thing you must grow why well romans 10 14 how should they call on him whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without someone preaching to them In Romans 10, 17, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So as you listen to the word of God taught by your pastor, your faith increases and develops if you have positive volition and you believe it and you apply it into your life. Now, you can go through life just playing church and you will never grow up spiritually. Hebrews 5, 11 through 14 says on this topic, I have a lot to say. It’s difficult to explain since you’ve become sluggish in hearing. For although you should in fact be a teacher by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God’s utterances because you’ve gone back to needing milk not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness because he’s an infant. But solid food belongs to the mature whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil. Solid food is serious, sound Bible teaching. Milk is entertainment, a little dab will do you. A lot of suffering comes to Christians because they’re confused. They lack any serious Bible knowledge. You know, in the military, you have military doctrine of how to win a war. Well, we have Bible doctrine, how to win the war in the spiritual life as well. Many people are ignorant to Bible doctrine. They’re ignorant about the principles in life. And if you are suffering from your wrong decisions that you’ve made in your life, then no prayer in the world is going to help you except to rebound that sin. That’s the only solution found in the Word of God. Now, God designed a system for you to protect you because you live in the devil’s world, and that system begins with the Bible. He provides a spiritual gift called a pastor to explain how that thing works. But you must submit to the authority of that pastor or that shepherd if you ever hope to find any meaning and any fulfillment in your life. You just keep going on down the my way highway. And I guarantee you, you’ll be miserable for what short time you will be here. And your search for happiness in people and circumstances, you’ll never find it. That’s why Luke 11, 28 says, happiness belongs to those who hear the word of God and keep it. That’s the secret. I don’t know if you’ve been listening. I hope you are. And I hope you’ll come back next Sunday at the same time in the same place. If I can help you, don’t hesitate to contact us. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Floodline.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
