Are you ready to transform your spiritual journey? This episode of The Flatline with Rick Hughes dives deep into the Christian doctrines that offer freedom from stress and anxiety. Learn how to acquire the mind of Christ and practice obedience through the ‘faith-rest drill.’ Rick shares invaluable lessons on resilience, the importance of divine viewpoint, and the critical role of virtue love. Tune in for a powerful discourse that equips you with the tools to stand firm as an invisible hero in your life’s narrative.
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.
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Good morning and welcome to The Slot Line. I’m your host, Rick Hughes. For the next few minutes, I’d like to ask you to stick around. Simply 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education, always done without any type of manipulation. That means we don’t try to con people. We’re not soliciting money, funds. We’re not asking you to join up and fess it up and give it up. Nothing like that. This show is simply giving you information so you can verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if you would like to follow that plan, Well, you have the privilege and the opportunity to orient and adjust if I can make it understandable. And that’s my job, to get it right, get it accurate, and make sure you understand why you need a flatline in your soul. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, meaning you’ve accepted Christ as your Savior, You have done the reboot. You have started your life again. Remember the Bible says, if any man’s in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things are passed away and all things become new. Jesus told Nicodemus he needed to reboot when he said you need to be born again. Reboot is a technical computer term. Turn it off, turn it back on, you know, get started again. And it is possible for all of us as believers to reboot our life. Before we accepted Christ, we were lost in our trespasses and sins. And then the good news is that Christ, the anointed son of God, redeemed us, bought us out of the slave market of sin, paid the debt to God. Now we’re free by putting our faith alone in Christ alone. And that’s why the Bible says in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace you’re saved through faith and that not of yourselves alone. It’s a gift from God and not of any works lest we would brag about it. The most wonderful decision, excuse me, that you could ever make in your life is to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior because that gives you options in life that no one else has. That gives you advantages in lives that other people don’t have. Advantages and options. What a wonderful thing it is for you. And so by building a flat line, a main line of resistance made up of 10 unique problem-solving devices, which, by the way, we have a book on that called Christian Problem Solving, and we have a bookmark that you can ask for to simply get in touch with me, email or whatever, and give us your address, and we’ll send you that bookmark, and it has all 10 problem-solving devices listed on it. But those 10 problem-solving devices are your main line of resistance to stop the outside sources of adversity before it ever becomes the inside source of stress. That’s the unique thing about a Christian life. We can live a life free of worry. We can live a life free of fear. We can live a life free of guilt. What a wonderful life. It’s the Christian life. And how do we do that? Well, we renovate our thinking. We acquire the mind of Christ. And that’s why Philippians 2, 5 says, let this mind be in you that’s also in Christ Jesus. As a friend of mine says, we make a course correction in life. We renovate our thinking. And we change. You know, when we accept Christ as Savior, we’re born again into the royal family of God. But what’s in our soul, our way of thinking, our way of living? We have to learn this new way. We have to learn divine viewpoint. We have to learn what God expects out of us. And this is the advantage of the Christian life. Freedom. Freedom from worry. Freedom from fear. Freedom from being intimidated by the world. And I think last week before I finished up, I gave you a passage in Matthew 6 where it said, therefore I say to you, don’t be anxious for your life. The Lord was talking to the disciples. And he gave them some illustrations about the birds and all of that and about how much God loved them. And he said that if you will seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and he’ll take care of your temporal needs, your clothes, your food, your body, whatever you need, he’ll take care of it. And so this was a mandate for us to use our spiritual life. It’s important that we remember that, the mandate for us to use our spiritual life. And so I want to go over some of that with you just for a minute. In this passage, in Matthew 6, verse 25 through 34, this mandate is for us to remember that adversity is always out there, but stress is always optional if we use our divine advantage. For example, our Lord and Paul forbid any believer to have anxiety, to have worried or uneasy feelings. The Bible is clear about that. But if we let our emotions take over, if we begin to act on what we feel rather than what we think, then fear sets up, trepidation sets up, and we become vulnerable and susceptible to being discouraged or or even defeated in the arena of contention in our life. So our emotions, although they’re real and they’re wonderful and appreciators, they can be a discourager to be careful. Emotions are great if I’m out fishing on the lake and I see a beautiful sunrise. It’s beautiful. I love the emotions. It pleases me to see a beautiful day and beautiful animals and beautiful fish. And it’s always great sunsets. But they’re not to make decisions with. They are appreciator. And if you try to make decisions with your emotions, it will discourage you. There’s nothing wrong with having passion. That’s an encourager. Passion is wonderful. Passion about the Christian life is amazing. But emotions can be a discourager because if you take passion and you translate your passion into a love for God, which is your number one virtue, then that would motivate you to be obedient to Him and to serve Him. So it’s okay for me and for you to be passionate about our love for the Word of God. That’s the number one thing. We should be passionate about our love for the word of God. Since acquiring divine viewpoint, learning to think like he thought is technically how we worship in its purest form. It’s called obedience. When the Bible says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, and when the Bible says, if you love me, you will obey me, well, there you go. Obedience requires me to study, to grow, to apply the word of God into my soul so that I can live this amazing, fantastic, wonderful life by building an invisible flat line in my soul. So the end result of living a spiritual life like we’re talking about is you and me having peace with God, and that would guard our hearts and our mind in Christ Jesus. So we develop what I used to call and still call the Fantastic Four, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, and understanding, all taught in the book of Proverbs chapter one. So you actually know how history will unfold. And you’re not a fortune teller, I know that, but you can look at the trends of the client nation such as the United States of America, and you can tell which direction we’re going. How’s it look to you? It doesn’t look too good, does it? You cannot believe what’s coming down the road. I personally believe there’s a train wreck coming, and I can hear the whistle blowing already in this country. Just read what’s going on. Take a look at how this country is being divided. The hatred, the animosity, you can see it. So the Bible says in Psalm 55, 22, cast your care on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never let the righteous be shaken. That’s you. As a believer in Jesus Christ, And a growing believer, one who’s studying, learning, and applying the word of God in their life, you have nothing to worry about. Because in the face of adversity, in the face of opposition, our Lord himself demonstrated tremendous resilience. Resilience. That’s another word that we must understand. As a believer, we must learn to be resilient. What’s the definition of resilience? It’s the ability of being able to adapt to stressful situations. The ability of being able to adapt to stressful situations, things that could alter the course of our lives if we don’t orient and adjust to the plan of God. So it is possible that you could actually handicap yourself by failing to be resilient. Resilience is you refusing to give up on yourself. Are you refusing to give up on other people after some sort of tragedy or failure? We have to learn this. Never cast a flawed believer aside. Our father doesn’t do that. He didn’t cast Moses aside when Moses made some mistakes and struck the rock at Meribah. He didn’t cast other men aside. David, he didn’t cast David aside when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. When people make mistakes, we don’t cast them aside, especially if they’re flawed and they have a sin nature trend that causes them to crash and burn and fail. We don’t throw them on the ash heap of life and walk away. We’re resilient towards them, resilient towards ourself, and we’re always looking ahead. We don’t ever look behind. That’s a terrible, terrible, terrible thing to do. Always look ahead, the next day, the next hour, the next opportunity, because as long as you’re alive, there’s still a plan of God for you. So the secret, if I had to label it, the secret to being resilient, The resiliency of the mature believer. Here’s the secret, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him. There it is as I read it. And he will direct your path. Trust in the Lord is problem-solving device number three, the faith rest drill. Standing on the promises of God. Do you know what the faith rest drill is? We’ve been over it on this radio show over the past 13 years about 10 or 15 times. It’s standing on the promises of God, claiming the promises of God, to have a relaxed mental attitude, and coming to a biblical rationale where you know that God’s in charge and you form a conclusion. If the Lord’s for me, who could be against me? So here is a mandate. Trust in the Lord. Stand on his word. Trust with all your heart. That’s all your fiber, everything within your heart. and do not lean to your own understanding, that’s human viewpoint. If you try to figure out how God’s gonna handle it, you’ll never get it right. There’s no way in the world that the Jews could have understood when they went into the promised land how God would handle Jericho. They were just told they would defeat Jericho and they were to destroy everybody in the city with the exception of Rahab the harlot and her family. They had no idea what God was gonna do with those walls. No idea. And this is the way it is so many times. People have no idea how the Lord is gonna handle things. So if we trust in him and we don’t lean to our own understandings, if you get to thinking about, well, why would God do this? How would he do that? You don’t know what he’s going to do. All you need to worry about is this, that you trust him, that you’re not afraid, that you’re not worried, that you put your faith and trust in him. He hasn’t thrown you aside. He hasn’t cast you on the ash heap of life. Be resilient. Trust in him. In all your ways, acknowledge him. That means adoration and recognition. That’s one of the key things in prayer to do. When you’re praying, you want to do adoration. That’s appreciation to God for what he’s done for you and recognition of God’s plan in your life. So in all of your ways, acknowledge him. And then the directive will of God, he shall direct your path. directive will of god where he wants you to be what he wants you to think what does he want you to do it’s all in the bible it’s all laid out for you divine guidance is a wonderful doctrine to understand and learn so that you don’t have to act on your intuitions in proverbs 24 15-16 you wicked one do not lie in ambush at the home of a righteous person and do not rob his house A righteous person may fall seven times, but he gets up again. However, in a disaster, wicked people fall and fail. Seven times. Would you call that resilient? Yes. Proverbs 24, 15 in the Living Bible, O evil man, leave the upright man alone and quit trying to cheat him out of his rights. Don’t you know that this good man, though you trip him up seven times… will every time rise again. But one calamity is enough to destroy you. This is one of the sayings presented in Solomon’s book of wisdom in the Proverbs, and that simple saying refers to the futility of the wicked man who seeks to destroy the righteous and to seize his possessions. According to what I call the Bible knowledge commentary written by Walvoord and Zuck, The righteous man is resilient and he recovers from such attacks. But the wicked man who instigates the scheme, the attack, they’re the ones who actually suffer, and it is sort of a judicial boomerang. So if you’ve been attacked, if you’ve been slandered, maligned, smeared, and this happens in churches a lot, an awful lot when someone in the church wants it to go one way and you don’t want it to go that direction, and they’ll start a smear campaign to malign and slander you, to get you out of the congregation, to get rid of you, thinking you’re a troublemaker. What do you do? You get up. You’re resilient. You may have to move on. You may just silently pick up your stuff and leave. But the Lord has a plan. They won’t be able to handle it. God will discipline them. But you, in your resilience, you keep going. That’s a wonderful thing. Proverbs 37, 23. The Lord makes firm. In other words, he gives solid ground to the steps of the one who delights in him. As long as you have positive volition, you’re hungry to learn and hungry to know. And this is where I want to make a difference here. Many people that I meet are not hungry to learn. They want to know God, but they don’t want to understand God. They are not hungry. And so if you talk about what it takes to grow in grace, if you talk about what it means to study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, they are not willing to commit the time to do it. They don’t have the hunger to do it. Only a very few that I’ve met over the years of my ministry, which is going on 50, have really had a desire to grow in grace. Most people are just happy to go to church and be a conventional Christian. Hello, God. Goodbye, God. I’ll see you next Sunday, God. Take care of me until then, God. We call it the nod to God crowd. They’re saved. They’re going to heaven. They have eternal life. they’re never going to have an impact for the lord jesus christ in this world because they’re not willing to learn and understand the plan of god so the lord makes firm solid ground the steps of the one who delights in him positive volition though he may stumble he won’t fall for the lord upholds him with his hand i’ve been young and now i’m old the psalmist said And I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor have I ever seen his seed begging bread. The resilience of the Apostle Paul can also be seen in Acts 14. Notice this about how resilient he was. In Acts 14, 19 and 20, the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium. And after winning the crowds over, that’s the public lie, they told the public lie loud enough, long enough, and often enough to… The idiots in the crowd believed it. So then they stoned Paul, stoned him. That means they attacked him with stones and they dragged him out of the city, presuming he was dead. He was unconscious. Stoned him. Verse 20, but after the disciples surrounded him, and I’m sure they prayed for him, he got up and he went back into the city. And on the next day, he left with Barnabas for Derbe. He got up and he went back into the city. The believer’s spiritual resilience always enables him to advance undeterred to maturity in his life. Undeterred. You’re going to face problems. Listen to what Paul said about it in his life. In 2 Corinthians 4, 8 and 9, using what I call the Net Bible, the New English translation, he said, we are experiencing trouble on every side, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are persuaded, but not, persecuted, but not abandoned. And we are knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Now there is resilience in the face of adversity. We’re troubled. That Greek word, T-H-L-I-P-B-O, thalibo, is a present passive participle, and all these are participles, by the way. And the trouble from him is the trouble from the pressure of the circumstances of antagonism. It’s not self-induced. It’s not something he created. It’s something he received. The antagonism. We are being troubled on every side. But we are not crushed. Stenicoreo is the Greek word. Stenicoreo. That means we are not forced into a narrow space like a… getting our foot crushed in a wall or something. We are not distressed over these circumstances. We are not distressed. We have adversity, but we don’t have any anxiety. He’s relaxed. He has a divine viewpoint. He’s troubled, yes, on every side, persecution, attacks, lies, stonings, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed. And that’s aporeo. In other words, he didn’t understand the attitude of the believers in the churches towards their Judaistic traditions. He said, we’re perplexed. I don’t quite understand it. We are perplexed, but not abandoned. We are not abandoned. And that is eg katalapo, means we’re not left helpless. We’re not deserted by God. So we’re troubled, but we’re not crushed. We are perplexed, don’t quite understand it, but we’re not driven into despair. And we are not abandoned and knocked down and destroyed. Let’s look at this a little bit more. We are not driven to despair. Ex porreo, ex aporreo, despair. It means we still have our resources. We’re knocked down, katabalo in the Greek, thrown to the ground, stoned, put in a lower place, but we’re not destroyed, apolumi, we’re not abolished, we’re not put to an end, we’re not rendered useless. So Paul lists all of these things, and then he notes the divine advantage for what he went through. The reason he went through these things, and here it is, listen carefully, 2 Corinthians 4, 15 and 18. For all of these things were for your sakes, so that the grace that is including more and more people may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not despair. Even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. Because we are not looking at what can be seen, but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. What did he say? We do not despair. We don’t have this despair. We have the resources in our soul. We are not lost. We have not given up hope. Paul had eternal objective optimism. And that was a clear indication of his resiliency. You see, if you’re subjective, not objected, but if you’re subjective, it will rob you of your divine outlook on circumstances beyond your control. You won’t understand it because subjectivity leads to negative volition on your part because you’ll get full of self-pity. You’ll begin to feel sorry for yourself and wonder why God allowed these things to happen to me. And this is not the way that Paul was about this, excuse me. So subjectivity leads to self-pity, and then self-pity is a byproduct of subjectivity. But virtue love, wonderful virtue love, is objective in its function. So virtue love is you loving God. If we love me, you’ll obey me. We love him because he first loved us, reciprocal love motivation. We are mandated to love God over and over and over again. That’s the friend God is looking for, the person that loves him. When we have this motivational virtue, personal love for God, then arrogance on that part is subjective. Arrogance is always towards self. That’s subjective arrogance, but love for God, virtue, is always objective. It’s always looking ahead, always looking for the next day. In other words, if you have an objective analysis in your soul from the Word of God you’ve learned and applied in your life, you have those problem-solving devices, then you can have the resiliency that you need to sustain you in times of adversity. You have the faith rest drill. You have the problem-solving devices. I mean, it’s wonderful. What do you have to worry about? Paul’s life was never fragmented by being arrogantly subjective. It didn’t happen. He was objective rather than subjective, and that’s the key to happiness in life because it allows you to counsel yourself with the Word of God that’s in your soul when you hit a crisis. You don’t get full of self-pity. You don’t get angry at people. You use a faith rest drill from the problem-solving devices, and you live with spiritual objectivity. And it helps you avoid hang-ups in your life, which hinder you learning the Word of God or applying the Word of God. We’re not perfect. None of us are perfect. We all have a sin nature. So perfectionism is not possible. But it is possible that we live as professionals Not perfectionist, but professionals. Professional believers. We are professionals. Spiritually quiet professionals who have an impact on history. The client nation USA needs some spiritually quiet professionals, which means they are members of the pivot. They are blessing by association. They have impact on the course of history as invisible heroes. Amazing what God wants you to do. You can change the course of history by your positive volition as you grow in grace and develop virtue love for God. Your life will count in such a way that you will be an invisible hero as a spiritual quiet professional. The invisible hero has invisible impact on history. And depending on your routine, your daily perception of the word of God, this is what will take place. As a winner, believer, you will demonstrate the validity of the sentence that God passed on the fallen angels. They had a chance, they rejected it. You have a chance and you’ve accepted it. So the invisible hero has an invisible impact. But if you don’t have that spiritual resiliency, you will never have an impact on the courts of history. Not in this client nation. So think about this. The spiritually mature believer has international impact, angelic impact, heritage impact. He changes history with his resiliency based on the word of God in his soul called those 10 problem-solving devices. Hope you’re listening. I hope you’re learning. I hope it makes sense. I know I didn’t do a great job, but we’re trying. Please come back next week. Same time, same place. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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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.
