Build spiritual strength to face trials with confidence in God. Rick Hughes explains the purpose of adversity, trials, and testing in the Christian life, showing how God uses them to build spiritual maturity. Drawing from James 1, Philippians 1, and Romans 5, he shares how to construct your “faith fortress” using the filling of the Holy Spirit, claiming Bible promises, and executing the faith-rest drill. Learn how to respond to challenges with endurance, avoid self-pity, and stand firm against spiritual attacks. This message offers biblical truth and practical steps for growing in grace under pressure.
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, please stick around. It won’t be long. Only about 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education. And as we always say, no manipulation because we’re not gonna try to sell you anything. We’re not gonna ask you to join anything. We’re not going to ask you for any money. We just want you to listen. Listen as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if I’m able to do that, then you have the freedom and the privacy to orient and adjust to the plan if you’d like to do so. It’s your life. You got one shot at it. Remember, God gave you two ends, one to sit with and one to think with, and success in your life will depend on which one of those you use. As they say, heads you win and tails you lose. Today we want to talk about something that I find hard to talk about. It’s something that many of us are going through right now. Many of my close friends are going through, some of your friends, maybe even you and me as well. It’s called testing. Testing. God’s plan for our lives often involves what we call testing. This occurs not because we’ve been bad people or bad Christians and done bad things. However, that can be true if it’s discipline. But rather what I’m talking about is to produce mature Christians. We must remember that we are behind enemy lines. Don’t ever forget that. And don’t forget your citizenship is in heaven, not on this planet Earth. Listen to me as I read Philippians 1.27. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. The key word here is the word conversation. In the Greek New Testament, the word is pronounced politouma, politouma, and it’s from the word politouo. It means to be a citizen. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago concerning how we are to conduct ourselves while we’re in the devil’s world. So two things we need to remember. First, we are ambassadors for the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, the Bible says, now we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s deed be reconciled to God. So that’s the job of the ambassador, to reconcile the world to God by proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And our second responsibility is that of the believer priest. You don’t need a priest, you are a priest. In 1 Peter 2, 9, the Bible says you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So these two primary responsibilities, ambassadorship and royal priesthood, as long as we stay behind enemy lines, these are things we must pay attention to. Being behind enemy lines means we’re going to have adversity through trials. In Philippians 129, this tells us, just the next two verses past what I read to you in 127. What does it say? For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Our Lord warned the disciples concerning what they could expect when he left them and went back to heaven. In John 16, one through two, the apostle John recorded these words of our Lord where he said, these things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. They will put you out of the synagogues. Yea, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he’s doing God’s service. The thing to remember is this, that God allows these things. These are trials that we go through in order to produce objective optimism in our life, which is simply us having confidence in him and his decisions. In Romans 12, 12, the Bible says rejoicing in hope and patient in tribulation, continually and constantly in prayer. The word hope in the Greek New Testament does not mean you’re wishing for something to happen like I hope it doesn’t rain, but rather that word hope, elpis, is an expression of confidence, confidence in God. And so Romans 12, 12 could be translated rejoicing in the confidence we have in God. The Apostle Paul experienced more than his fair share of testing. He wrote about it throughout the words of the New Testament. His words to the believers in Rome were in Romans 5, 3 through 4. Here’s what he wrote. And not only so, but we glory in our tribulations. That’s the testing. Knowing that testing, tribulation, worketh patience, and patience experience and experience confidence or hope. So here’s the first principle we need to remember. Every trial we experience while behind the enemy line is designed to accelerate our spiritual growth so that we may walk worthy of our calling, our assignment, and our responsibility. Even David in the Old Testament writings recognized the value of trials and tribulations that he faced. He wrote in Psalm 119 verse 71, it’s good for me that I have been afflicted or tested or suffered so that I might learn your statutes, your word. Principle. Here it is. Need to write this down. To learn humility, we’re often put into circumstances that are unfair in order to refine us and purge us, preparing us for what is to come. And what is to come is called evidence testing in the Bible. Unfortunately, much of the suffering we endure, unfortunately, is self-induced, and usually by one of three things. Usually we mismanage our relationships with other people, we mismanage our finances, and sometimes we’ll mismanage our health. The wonderful thing about our loving Heavenly Father is this, that in spite of those bad decisions we make, he still loves us. In Romans 8, 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, there it is, testing, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nothing can separate us from the love of God, even our own bad decisions. you may turn around and walk away from God as I know many have done. Believers, Christians, turned around and walked away from God, checking the details of life. And all that simply means is that God has to love them from behind rather than from in front. He does not quit loving you, I promise you. So can I ask you a simple question, a personal question? If you have something happen in your life that some people would consider disastrous or distracting, how would it affect you? Would you get mad because you had an automobile malfunction on your way to work? Or maybe worse yet, on your way to the beach? Would you panic if the doctor gave you some very bad news about your health? Well, what if your automobile was broken into or stolen? Happened to me one night. I was in Tennessee night fishing on the Tennessee River. Launched my boat, went out to go fishing, came in about 3 o’clock in the morning, and my truck and my boat trailer had been stolen. So there I was in the middle of the night in a strange place, sitting in the boat in the lake with no truck and no trailer to get home. My buddy with me thought that was strange that I wasn’t upset, and I thought, well, I mean, if God allowed it, there must be a reason for it. And there was. There was a whole gang of people up there stealing trucks. He had to have a certain kind of truck before he stole it, and they stole mine, and I never did get it back. But it’s easy to react. It’s easy to get mad. It’s easy to be vindictive. But the scriptures tell us just the opposite of that. What do the scriptures actually say about that? In James 1-2, my brethren, count it all joy. Uh-oh. Count it all joy when you fall into many temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. That’s absolute objective optimism and trust in God So the two key words we need to understand in these verses is temptation. Count it all joy when you fall into temptation. And that’s the Greek word parasmos, P-E-R-I-A-S-M-O-S, parasmos. It occurs over 20 times in the New Testament, and sometimes it’s translated trials, sometimes it’s translated temptations. The corresponding verb is parazo, and it means to test or to tempt, and that word appears nearly 40 times in the Bible. It can refer to a challenging situation designed to test your faith or your character, or it can signify an enticement for you to sin. The word also encompasses the broader concept of adversity or affliction. The second word, count it all joy when you fall into many temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith works patience. That’s the second word, patience. This is the Greek word, hupomone, and that’s what we translate patience. It translates to endurance or perseverance or steadfastness. And it signifies a steadfastness in the face of difficulty. A patient endurance that does not give up when faced with trials. It’s not just passive waiting, but active trusting and resisting against the hardships that you may be facing in your life. What a wonderful thing to remember. Count it all joy when you’re tested. Count it all joy when you go through these trials because it’s going to produce in you patience, hupomone, endurance, perseverance, steadfastness. This is something you must have to become a mature believer. You cannot grow to be the mature believer that God wants you to be without having this hupomone, this steadfastness in your life. You can’t be knocked off course every time you have a bad situation happen. You can’t get mad every time something doesn’t go your way. You can’t live like that. If you get angry, mad, frustrated, upset over some situation, you’re sinning. You’re letting your sin nature take over. These trials I’m talking about that we face are because we live behind the enemy lines, as I told you. And we are confronted with the cosmic conflicts on a daily basis. people with tempers, crooks, impolite individuals, immoral individuals, devious people, not to mention the normal things such as weather difficulties, tornadoes, storms, floods, not to mention financial hardships or even conflicts in the family. All of these situations are what I call joy stealers. And they can steal your joy if you don’t think instead of reacting with frustration and bitterness and self-pity. But James in 1.2 said, count it all joy. Count it all joy. He tells us that these parasmos, these testings, these trials, will bring maturity and establish your spiritual life. And then in James 1.4, this is two verses past James 1.2, let patience have her perfect work, so that, purpose clause, the word that is a purpose clause, so that what? So that you may be perfect, entire, and wanting nothing. This is God’s plan for you to grow up to be a mature believer, to get through the evidence testing, and to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, and to not be wanting anything, but to be completely content with what you have. Ultimately, these sort of trials bring much happiness to the believer if they will use the faith rest drill. That’s if. And if they will maintain a relaxmental attitude, that’s if, with both people and circumstances. James goes on to say in James 1.12, Blessed is the man that endures these temptations. For when he has tried, that’s in the future, the judgment seat of Christ, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love him. The word blessed is actually the Greek word makarios, and it means happiness or fortunate. So these are three important verses for us to learn. James 1, 2, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into many temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith works patience. That was the first verse. And then we saw in James 1.4, but let patience have her perfect work, so that she may be perfect and interior, wanting nothing. And then we saw in James 1.12, blessed is the man that endures temptation, testing, for when he has tried, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. This is a future event for you. I promise you, you want to go into heaven and get that crown. You want to hear what so many people have told you before. Well done, my good and faithful servant. And that’s what God expects out of us as long as we’re behind enemy lines. In 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 9, Paul tells us how he prayed on three different occasions for the thorn in his flesh to be removed, but it didn’t happen. Let me read it to you. And lest I should be exalted above the measure through the abundance of the revelation that was given to me, a thorn in the flesh. This is something to keep him humble. The messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. See, he had some direct revelation from God. And God said, you’re not going to have the big head about it. I’m going to give you some testing to go along with it. And so what was Paul’s attitude about this testing? Well, here it is in verse 8. Probably the same attitude you and I have. For this thing I asked the Lord three times that it might go away from me. So he prayed and asked God to remove the testing on three different occasions. Was that a sin? No. It’s normal. Anybody going through extreme testing is going to pray for it to be taken that way. Lift it up. I remember one night in Georgia, I was teaching some Bible classes in Tifton, Georgia, and my appendix ruptured. I wound up in the hospital with a ruptured appendix, but it took about 10 days for them to figure out what it was. And during that 10 days, I suffered mightily. I lay there in the bed, wishing that it would go away, praying that it would go away. And it didn’t go away until they operated and just figured out what had happened. So I understand Paul saying, I asked the Lord three times for it to leave me, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. That’s the living grace. Remember, there’s saving grace, living grace, dying grace, surpassing grace. My living grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Most gladly, therefore, Paul said, here’s his solution. I would rather glory in my testings and my infirmities, my testing, so that the power of the Lord Jesus Christ may rest on me. That’s the correct attitude through testing. You’re going to want to be upset. You’re going to want to be frustrated. You don’t want that test to happen. You don’t want it to bug you. You want to live your life uncomplicated, but it’s not complicated now. The lightning hit, the power went out, the car crashed, the tire went flat, the kid called and had a wreck. What do you do? Get mad, get frustrated. Or you can use a problem-solving device. When God said, my grace is sufficient for you, there are at least 10 problem-solving devices that you can call upon to use. So it’s obvious that this suffering Paul was going under was undeserved. He didn’t deserve it, but it was put on him. And it’s obvious that prayer was not going to convince God to remove it. What did work was using God’s grace provisions. And for you and me, they are those 10 problem-solving devices that we call the flatline on our soul. Essentially, the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is problem-solving device number two, allows us to recall and think divine viewpoint, Scripture. and maintain a RMA, a relaxed mental attitude, by using the FRD, the faith rest drill. So if you stay filled with the Holy Spirit, don’t let sin get into your life, and if you do sin, confess the sin. And if you will take the scripture you’ve learned and use it as a faith rest drill, hiding in your faith fortress, and we’ll talk about that. and you can overcome these things and you can glorify god in a wonderful way because never forget the divine promise found in first corinthians 10 13 there has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but god who is faithful always who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you can stand, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you would be able to bear it. That’s the testing, not tempting you to sin, the testing. We have here our word parasmos again in the temptation, parasmos. Remember, it’s referring to the testing of your faith. That verse in 1 Corinthians 10, 13 tells us what? that we are not only the individuals who are living behind enemy lines and being subject to testing and trials. We’re not the only one. These things we’re going through are common to man. God said, you’re not the only one going through this. Don’t have your little pity party. Other people are going through it, and other people have it much worse than you do. But you want to whine and cry, complain, That’s sin. It’s preoccupation with yourself. Having self-pity. Don’t do that. That’s quenching the Holy Spirit. Confess that sin and use the problem-solving devices, especially the faith-rest drill. Okay? That word parasmos, interesting to know it. He will not allow you to be tested more than you can stand. There is always an escape route. Did you hear what he said? But with the temptation, I will make a way to escape. There is always an escape route. And what is it? It’s you retreating into your faith fortress and standing firm, not being intimidated by Satan or any circumstances. And you may say, what in the world is a faith fortress? Well, there are about 7,000 promises in the Bible, and if you consider each one of those promises to be a block or a brick, you can construct a fortress by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit and pertinent Bible promises. So if you learn those promises, and what holds those blocks together is your faith. That’s sort of like the concrete or the cement that puts them together. So as you learn these promises from God, and you can’t learn all 7,000, I know that, but by the way, we have a book called Promises and Principles you might enjoy reading. It’s got a lot of them in it. But as you learn these promises, you establish a faith fortress. That’s a place you can go behind to be protected from the fiery darts of the wicked one. And as you use your faith to hold these promises together, you’ll be safe on the backside. All right? Hebrews 13, 5. Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For he has said, I will never leave you. I will never, ever forsake you. In John 10, 28 again, and I give unto them eternal life. This is eternal security. By the way, these two verses deal with eternal security. I give unto them eternal life and they will never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my Father’s hand. That’s one of the things Satan will try to take away from you is your eternal security. So standing behind your faith fortress, this is part of what the shield of faith is about in Ephesians chapter six. You must build a faith fortress in your life. You must learn the promises of God and use them as a building block to build that fortress and use your faith as cement that holds those blocks together. So when the Bible gives you a promise, one of those 7,000, and some situation hits your life, you go get behind the fortress. So that promise number one of eternal security is important to remember so that Satan does not cause you to lose the joy of your salvation by creating doubt concerning your security in Christ. That’s why Ephesians 6 says, put on the helmet of salvation. Ephesians 6, 11 through 17, put on the helmet of salvation. Technically, there are over 7,000 promises, as I told you, and we can claim these throughout the entire scriptures because each one of those promises is like a block in the construction of your fortress. We published a book entitled Promises and Principles, as I said, and that will list many of these divine provisions. Would you like to hear one of my promises that I claim? This is one of the blocks in my faith fortress. It’s Isaiah 54, 17. No weapon that is formed against you will prosper. and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. When you mix the promises of God, that’s the blocks that support the walls of your faith fortress, And then you add the reason for the promise based on the essence of God, such as his omnipotence, his power, his omnipresence, he’s with you, his omniscience, he’s all-knowing. When you add that, you are cementing the blocks into place. So now you have the confidence to know that God is going to do exactly what he promised to do. And that’s your faith execution. So you have the faith fortress built on the promises of God based on the essence of God knowing that he will do it because he is God, he won’t lie to you. And that’s where you can relax, that’s your faith execution. Hebrews 4.1 warns us, here it is, listen, therefore let us fear least a promise being unclaimed of entering into his rest, and if you should seem to come short of it. Don’t pass up those promises. Fear in this verse is used in a good way because in a sense it’s much like an obligation. We don’t want to leave anything on the table that’s essential for our growth. And entering into his rest is sharing the happiness of God. So God wants you to enter into his rest. All right, fear in this verse is used in a good sense, much like an obligation. Let us be obligated to God, lest a promise goes unclaimed. Nothing worse than wasting a promise. So do we face adversity from our enemy? Yes. Are we equipped to handle the adversity that Satan throws our way? Yes, because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, 57, but thanks be to God which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. There used to be an old song called Victory in Jesus. That’s a great way to think about it. So I hope you have learned something today from the study on testing, adversity trials that you go through, and how to build a faith fortress in your life so that you can glorify God to the maximum through it all. As God told Paul, my grace is sufficient. You don’t need me to take it away. You just need to use what I gave you and relax. Okay? Well, I hope you enjoyed this show, and I hope you’ll come back next week at the same time. We have a new book out, by the way, called The Christian Spiritual Life. You should order it and get it. It details what the spiritual life is all about. And, of course, it’s free. Thank you for listening to The Flatline. We’ll see you next week. Same time, same place.
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.
