In this episode of The Flatline, host Rick Hughes delves deep into the concept of volition. This God-given ability empowers us to make significant decisions in our lives that are fundamental to our spiritual journey. Rick reflects on his personal experiences and explains how life-altering choices can shape our relationship with God. He invites listeners to explore the role of volition in understanding God’s plan and the importance of aligning our priorities with our faith.
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 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stick around. It’ll be a short 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education, always done without any manipulation. That means we don’t solicit money. We don’t hustle people to join anything. We’re not trying to get you to fess it up, give it up, not to do anything, but listen up. Listen as I try to… give you insight into the Word of God and how you can understand, verify, and identify God’s plan for your life. If you want to do that, you are free to orient and adjust to the plan. That’s up to you. My job is to be accurate, to get it right, no-nonsense sort of way, and I hope you’re enjoying the show. We get letters every day from people. I love to hear from you. I love to hear from those cities where we broadcast and at least know that we’re being heard as we get ready to renew our contracts for the year. It always helps to know that there are people in various cities that are listening. So if you’re there and you’re listening, drop us a note, rick at rickhughesministries.org, rick at rickhughesministries.org. That’s our email address, and let us know you’re listening. We’ll appreciate it very much. Okay, today we want to talk about something that is very critical, probably one of the most critical things in your life. You know, I don’t get into politics. I’m not here to solve any political problems, but I like to get into your thinking and how you think. And we’re going to talk about the word that starts with V, which is volition, V-O-L-I-T-I-O-N, volition. Volition is part of your soul that God gave you. God gave you a body, a soul, and a spirit. And in that soul, you have mentality, you have the ability to think and logic and reason and comprehend. You have volition, you have consciousness and self-consciousness. And the volition is what we want to talk about today because you are a product of your volitional decisions. There are many decisions we have to make in life and some are critical, some are not. But every decision that we make has a lasting effect in our memory or else in our results. Like you, me, we can probably think back when you were young and remember things that you did and maybe you’re not able to do them anymore. But there are fragrant memories, sweet memories, and you remember those things. Your volition took you there, you did it, and you remember it. Some of the results were good, some of the results not so good. There are some things you’d probably like to forget you did. You might have even surprised yourself. It’s really sad when people do things that they didn’t think they were capable of doing, and then somehow or another they get to thinking that God gave up on them. Well, God has not given up on you. If you’re alive and you’re listening to my voice, God still has a plan for your life. He has not thrown you under the bus. You might’ve done something stupid. We all have, but he still has a plan for your life. So the driving force is your volition mixed with your desires. So every action that you do starts with a thought and moves to an action. And usually it’s about your priorities. For example, at one time in my life, I came to a place where priorities were more important than my passions. If you’ve listened to the show very long, you know that I love bass fishing, and I was a very successful angler in local tournament competition. Several of my friends encouraged me to go beyond local events and try a national competition. However, that would have required travel to different states and big entry fees, and my ministry to schools across the southeast already required me to be on the road at least 20 weeks out of every year. So to do something else, I would have had to give up something and it boiled down to my passion versus my priorities. Yes, I love to fish, I love to compete in the tournaments, but it wasn’t my priority. My priority was what God called me to do. So how could I give up God’s calling to chase a dream that man offers? That’s what I mean when I say life requires decisions and choices. I know some people today that could be in the ministry, that could be great communicators of the Word of God, but they chose to go into the entertainment field. They chose to go into other areas, and they made that decision. And I’m sure at some point in their life, they’ll turn around and regret it. It may even happen in your life already. You went down a road you didn’t want to go down, and it left you in a place you didn’t want to be. You made a decision. You made a choice. You used your volition. The greatest decision I ever made, number one single greatest decision I ever made was to become a Christian. That’s the night I heard God love me, that he sent his son to pay for my sins. And I understood that particular night that I had to make a choice. Would I accept Jesus Christ as my savior or would I put it off? And it needed to be done that night, not a week from then, that night, right there in that place. And in my volition, I made the decision. I didn’t know it was my volition at the time. I didn’t understand the terminology. but I knew that I made a decision that night to pray and ask God to save me. And it was a simple prayer. I think it was called the sinner’s prayer. And when I prayed that prayer, I didn’t feel anything. The lights didn’t flicker. No angel spoke to me, but my life was changed forever because the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if any man is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. And that’s the night that Rick Hughes became a new person in Christ Jesus. Likewise, you’re the product of your decisions. Proverbs 23, 7 says, as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. Hosea 8, 7 says, they sow to the wind and they reap to whirlwind. And this is all about your volitional decisions that you make in your life. So I want to ask you one simple question. It’s an easy question for you to answer with a yes or no. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? You may think it’s impossible to know that for sure, but that’s not true. It is possible. You can know for sure that you will have eternal life with God. How can I know it for sure? In 1 John 5, 11 through 13, the Word of God records these words. This is the testimony that God has given us life. And this life is in his son. He who has the son has life. And he who does not have the son of God does not have life. We’re speaking about eternal life. These things I’ve written unto you who believe in the name of the son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. You may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God. That verse in 1 John 5, 11 through 13 guarantees you eternal life based on your volitional decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to accept him as your savior. In John 1, 12, the Bible clearly says, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. In Romans 10, 13, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That volitional decision that you need to make and that I made is the single most important decision we will ever make. So I’d like to ask you a question again. I ask you one question. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? If the answer was a no, or if the answer was I’m not sure, or if the answer was I want to, but I don’t know how, I’m going to ask you to pray with me right now. I’m going to ask you to pray a simple sinner’s prayer and ask you to receive Christ this very moment as I’m speaking to you over the radio. So let’s do it now. If you would like to know for sure and nail it down, be positive that you’re going to heaven. Let’s pray together now and repeat this prayer after me silently, not out loud, but silently. Just pray this prayer. It goes like this. Heavenly Father, I believe your son, Jesus Christ, is my savior. I am willing to accept him as my Lord. I believe he died for me, and I receive him today. In Christ’s name, amen. Those words are simple. It could have been several different words, but they’re simple. But that was you expressing yourself to God. And that was you asking God to save you. And remember John 1.12, remember it says, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. You just received Christ as your savior. But that simple act of faith You appealed to God and the Bible says, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You did it right now. You just did it. And you just received eternal life. You just started on a journey that will never end. It’s amazing that your volition can do that for you. But that single decision you just made is the greatest decision you will ever make. If you did that, if you prayed a simple prayer with me like that, would you write to me as soon as possible and let me know? You can write to me very easy. Just write P.O. Box 100. That’s not hard to remember. P.O. Box 100. In the great city of Cropwell, C-R-O-P-W-E-L-L, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054. That’s P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054. If you will write to me and tell me that you prayed with me today, I’m going to send you a book called A Crash Course in Christianity. It’s brand new. We just got it off the press. And anybody that wants to have the book can write and ask for it. It’s free, of course, but especially if you’ve prayed with me today. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ himself made a volitional decision in regards to your faith when he said this, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. That’s his decision he’s making in regards to you. He’s in you now. He lives in you now. It’s Christ in me, the hope of glory, Paul said. He’s in you. And that’s a divine promise from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He will never leave you. And this promise is rooted in the scriptures. Listen carefully, John 3, 16 through 18. For God so loved the world, that’s you and me, that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. You just expressed your faith to God. You just told God you believe that his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Savior of the world and you asked to be saved. This verse is for you. You have eternal life. You will never be condemned. So God, Father himself, Use his very own volition to sacrifice his only son. And also use his volition to guarantee you’ll never lose that free gift. So you made your volitional decision to receive Christ. Christ made a volitional decision to promise he’ll never leave you. And God the Father made a volitional decision to send Christ to die for you. So it’s a wonderful thing. Now, your volition is very important because it guards the gate to your soul, the mentality of your soul, the thinking of your soul. Your volition must stay intact, it must stay clean, it must make good and proper decisions. So the first great decision your volition can ever make is to receive Christ as Savior. The second great decision is for you to dedicate yourself to reach spiritual maturity, and it does not happen overnight. If you’re willing to dedicate yourself to be a mature believer, it requires a series of volitional decisions every day. The first one is, are you willing to name your sins on a moment-by-moment basis? That’s problem-solving device number one, rebound. When you sin, and you will, I surprised myself after I got saved when I sinned, but it didn’t take too long either, maybe a couple of days, and boom. And I thought, well, I thought I was saved. Now look what I just did. You will sin. And the Bible says if we will confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. It could be a mental attitude sin such as fear or anger. It could be a sin of the tongue such as maligning or gossip or lying or criticizing. It could be an overt sin, something you do outwardly. It could be adultery. It could be pornography. It could be theft. It could be a lot of different things. You can go to the Father and admit your sin to him, and he will forgive you. I promise you that. You see, sin breaks fellowship with God. Sin quenches the Holy Spirit and grieves the Holy Spirit. It’s necessary for you to be willing to name your sin on a moment-by-moment basis, not when you go to bed at night, is immediately when you realize you’ve committed a sin, then stop and ask God to cleanse you. Just tell him, Father, I lied. Father, I lusted. Father, I was afraid. And that’s what 1 John 1, 9 is. You’re naming your sin to God. Secondly, are you willing to discipline yourself to study God’s word every day under a well-qualified pastor? Not play games with God, but seriously sacrifice some of your time every day to feed on the word of God and to metabolize what you learn so you can become a member of the pivot. To metabolize it means to cycle it into energy. Just like you eat food, it has to be metabolized. The Word of God comes into your mind, you understand it, you comprehend it, and then you have to apply it. That’s the metabolization of the Word of God. When it’s applied, it’s called wisdom. So are you willing to spend some time every day to feed on the Word of God? That’s gonna require a volitional decision on your behalf, and there will be tons of distractions, tons of reasons why you don’t have to do that. In 2 Timothy 2.15, the Bible says you are to study to show yourself approved, approved, not disapproved, approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, not embarrassed, but ashamed, not to be embarrassed, rightly dividing the word of God. In other words, God wants you to learn his plan. He wants you to study. He wants you to apply it so that you don’t have to be ashamed of your failures. Study is an imperative verb in this passage. Study is a verb, and it’s a command. It means this. It’s not a request. It’s a command. And you may say, well, how much am I supposed to study? I mean, I do a little 10-minute devotion before every day. That’s not enough. To study the Word of God daily means that you take in the Word of God from a qualified pastor on a consistent basis. And I’m not talking about a mere appetizer. I’m talking about a meal. The full meal served to you by a well-qualified pastor. You say, how do I do that? My church only meets on Sunday and Wednesday. Well, you’re not getting enough. There are people that teach the word of God and disseminate the information free of charge. And it’s possible for you to take a cup of coffee and sit down at your kitchen table or your desk and get a notebook and a Bible and take in the word of God every day because I know it, I do it myself from my pastor. And you can do it just like me. So, excuse me. Thirdly, are you willing to stand boldly and claim Christ publicly? Are you willing to stand boldly and claim Christ publicly? That’s the question. In Matthew 10, 32, therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him will also I confess before my father, which is in heaven. In 1 Peter 3.15, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you along with meekness and fear. I can remember people coming up to me in the restaurant saying, are you praying? Yes, I’m praying. Are you embarrassed to bow your head and pray when you’re with your comrades at a meal? I know you just, you say, oh, I just don’t, I pray, but I don’t bow my head, I don’t close my eyes. are you willing to publicly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is your Lord? Are you willing to publicly acknowledge that you are a Christian? And what does this mean when it says, give a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear? What does that mean? 1 Peter 3.15, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Hope is the word. Elpis means confidence in the Greek. Absolutely confident that you’re going to heaven. You’re confident that God forgives you for your sin. You’re confident in the plan of God. And you talk about it with meekness and fear. Meekness is the Greek word prautes. Prautes. It means gentleness. Prautes. It means you don’t browbeat people. You don’t take a Bible and hit them over the head and say, you’re going to go to hell if you keep smoking that cigarette, brother. That’s not what the Bible says. You’re going to go to hell if you drink that beer, brother, and you wave a Bible in front of them. That’s not what the Bible says. That’s not being meek. It means gentleness, concern, and care, and compassion. Look at the person in front of you. He’s lost. He’s dying. He’s going to hell. God didn’t send you to straighten him out. God sent you to give him the answers. God sent you to give him the life preserver, Jesus Christ, the hope of glory. So you are to be doing it very gentle. You could ask a simple question. Can I ask you a question? You could go like this. I was listening to this guy on the radio and he asked me the same question. If I die today, would I go to heaven? Can I ask you that question? If you die today, would you go to heaven and see what they say? Maybe they’d be mad about it. Maybe they’d be embarrassed about it. Maybe they won’t even give you an answer. But if they say no, you can say, would you like to know how? And if they say yes, you can take them to that same verse I took you to, 1 John 5, 11 through 13, and you can show them in the Bible where they can know for sure they have eternal life if they have the Son. And you can pray with them and help them pray the sinner’s prayer and watch them receive Christ as their Savior. That’s in meekness and in fear. The Greek word for fear is phobos, and it means respect or fear of displeasing God. You don’t want to displease God, which means you don’t want to do the wrong thing One of the worst things you could do is to misrepresent God, to give someone a salvation interpretation and misrepresent it. What do I mean by that? To give a soul-saving message of salvation is an awesome responsibility, but you have to get it right, and you have to present it in the right way. First of all, do not ever, ever mix any sort of works with salvation. In other words, don’t tell this guy or this lady that they can go to heaven if they give up what they’re doing. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, for by grace are you saved through faith. It’s a gift from God, not of works, unless anybody would brag about it. So don’t tell somebody they got to quit drinking to go to heaven, they got to quit smoking to go to heaven, they got to quit cussing to go to heaven. That’s not true. Those may not be things Christians do, but that’s not how you get saved. So don’t mix up works with salvation. And secondly, never confuse baptism with salvation. Baptism is an identification with the Lord Jesus Christ, but it’s not the means of how you get saved. Listen to the Apostle Paul. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, that’s Romans 1.16. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, it, that’s the gospel of Christ, it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, for the Jew first, also to the Greek. So what’s the power of God unto salvation? The gospel. What’s the gospel? The death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, 17 in regard to baptism. He said these words, 1 Corinthians 1, 17, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. to salvation to everyone who believes, for the Jew first and then to the Gentiles. Then he went on to say in 1 Corinthians 1, 17, God did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. So don’t ever confuse baptism with salvation. They’re not the same thing. A person who receives Christ as Savior may indeed be baptized, but that’s not how he gets saved. That’s a sign that he’s been saved and he’s identifying with Christ. Now, the fourth volitional decision you have to make is will you finish the race by keeping your priorities straight? Listen to Paul in 2 Timothy 4, 7. I fought a good fight. I finished my course. I kept the faith. there will be many distractions along the way. The flesh will demand that you fulfill its very lust patterns that you have. The world will serenade you with its lure of happiness found in the details of life. And last but not least, Satan will attempt to divert and defeat you since you’re in a spiritual war. Will you finish the race? I don’t think you’re going to live a perfect life. I don’t live a perfect life. No one I know lives a perfect life. We all sin, we all fail, but we get up and we keep moving. We don’t go sit in the corner and cry and say, oh, I let God down. I did something so good, so bad. God doesn’t love me anymore. That’s not true. You must finish the race. You must get up when you fail. You must rebound your sin. You must confess it to God, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and get back into the Word of God and keep moving forward and don’t look back. Paul said, forgetting those things that are behind me, I press forward towards the prize. The prize is to hear that word, well done, my good and faithful servant. So now fifth and final challenge, do you have the discipline and do you have the strength to walk alone if you need to do that? Do you have the discipline and do you have the strength to walk alone if you have to do that? Micah 6, 8. He hath answered thee, O man, what is good? And what doth the Lord require of you? Now listen carefully. What doth the Lord require of you but to do just, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? To do just, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. There are going to be times you’ll have to go it alone. Remember David said, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. If you decide to become a mature believer, if you decide to become part of the pivot, this means you will deliver your nation in the future. And a lot of people are going to peel off and not stick with it. I know more that it peeled off than it stuck with it, I promise you. And I have met thousands of people who told me they wanted to grow. They wanted to be this. They wanted to be that. And two weeks later, you can’t find them. In 1 Peter 2, 21, for even here unto where you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps. He went alone. for you and me. In Matthew 10, 35, for I am come to set a man at variance against his daughter and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. It’s possible that your spouse, your husband or your wife might not see it like you do. It’s possible they’ll be offended that you want to study the Word of God and you want to sit down and listen on a consistent basis. It’s possible they’re going to demand you stop doing that because they have needs of you. Unless you’re willing to go it alone, even though your family may turn against you, your friends may turn against you, are you willing to go it alone? That’s a big question, and that’s what your volition must decide. You don’t have to decide it right now. You’ve made that decision to believe in Christ. Now you have to make the decision to rebound consistently, make the decision to start taking in the Word of God, make the decision to grow in grace, and to stand boldly for the Lord Jesus Christ. And there will come a time when you’re going to be called on to go alone. I hope you’re not afraid to do that. I hope you’re willing to stand firm and to glorify God as a result. Well, I thank you for listening to me today. We have a new book out called Crash Course in Basic Christianity. It is free. It’s out to press. It’ll be in our office in another week or so. So if you’d like a copy of that book, Don’t hesitate to go to the website and order it or simply write to us, P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama. Tell us you want the book, Crash Course in Basic Christianity. Okay? Until next week now, I’m your host, Rick Hughes. Pray for us. We’ll be back same time, same place, same channel, giving you another message from the Word of God. So thank you for being with me today. I appreciate it very much.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
