In this enlightening episode of The Flatline, host Rick Hughes shares profound insights on how to navigate personal and national challenges through the lens of faith. With references to key biblical passages, the discussion centers on how God’s plan is meant to inspire hope and not despair. Rick delves into the significance of the faith-rest drill and explains how understanding God’s promises can lead to a life free from stress and anxiety despite the surrounding chaos.
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 Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, stick around. 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education, and always done without any type of manipulation, which means we don’t play games. We’re not trying to hustle money, join people up, give up anything, nothing like that. We simply want to give you some information, information about how you can verify and identify the plan of God for your life, and if you do that, you can orient and adjust to the plan if you want to. It’s your life, your decision. You have to make that choice. You got one shot at it, so don’t blow it. And I appreciate you listening. Flotline is all about the 10 unique problem-solving devices that God has in his word, something my pastor taught me years ago. And if you learn these 10 problem-solving devices, they act like a main line of resistance in your soul. And actually, they can stop the outside pressures of adversity from ever becoming the inside source of stress. That’s why we always say adversity is inevitable and stress is optional. Learning the Word of God gives you the opportunity to have a life like the Lord Jesus Christ, a life free of worry, a life free of bitterness, a life free of stress, a wonderful way to live. And we have a lot of material we can offer you that’ll help you with that. A lot of our books we’ve written, we’ve redone a lot of our books, and they’re all free. You can go to the website and see them at rickhughesministries.org. rickhughesministries.org. And anything there, you can order freely, and we’ll be glad to send it out to you. You can also listen to the radio shows there, or even on our podcast. You can go to Spotify, you can go to Apple iPod, you can go to Anchor and type in The Flotline, and hear The Flotline shows anywhere, anytime, any day, all across the world. So thank you for listening. What do we want to talk about today? We’re going to talk about being discouraged and being disappointed, especially after the midterm election. So many people got discouraged and disappointed because it’s whoever they wanted didn’t get it. And so now we got people all upset. Let’s listen to what the word of God has to say about this. In Jeremiah 29, 11, here’s what God said. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, plans to give you a future and a hope. So God’s plan is not to discourage you. God’s plan is not to disappoint you. God’s plan is to give you this amazing, fantastic, wonderful life wrapped through the Lord Jesus Christ and in the word of God, which gives you the sustainable power to deal with things that you don’t like. But in times of national confusion, times of chaos, this is a good verse to help you remember that God has a plan both for our personal lives individually and for the influence of this nation. Personally, you might be discouraged due to some political situation, and I assume you’re a loyal patriot. You love your country, and your eyes like mine moist up when we hear our national anthem sung at different events. I mean, it’s natural to feel emotional about things you care for, but remember this. The mature believer does not operate on emotions. You don’t operate on emotions. Emotions are what you feel, and God said, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. Operate on what you think. As a man thinketh in his soul, so he is, Proverbs says. So God’s not interested in you operating on your emotions. He wants you to operate on thought, clear, lucid thought. And that’s what we’re talking about. So remember this. Joshua 1.9, this is what God told Joshua about emotions. Have I not commanded you to be strong and be courageous? Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed. That’s discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you will go. And this was given after Moses died and they had to go into the promised land and Joshua was elected the new leader. And they had to go to the battle of Jericho. You might have heard Joshua at the battle of Jericho. And so God told him, don’t be discouraged. Don’t be frightened. If you add to that verse a verse in the New Testament in 1 Peter 5, 7, cast all your anxieties, on him because he cares for you. That means cast all your frustrations, all your fears, everything on the Lord because he cares for you. That’s called the faith rest drill, problem solving device number three in the protocol plan of God. So if you learn the faith rest drill, claim one of those 7,000 promises in the Bible, then you can continue to have a relaxed mental attitude and let the Lord handle the difficulties. So that verse in 1 Peter 5, 7 combined with Joshua 1, 9 brings us back to Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your path. So here’s key to this. Trust God because he knows what he’s doing. Remember Jeremiah 29, 11. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans are for welfare and not for evil. Trust the Lord. Don’t lean on your own understanding. You may think things are going haywire. You may think things are wrong. Maybe it never dawned on you that the Lord Jesus Christ controls history, and God’s in charge. He’s not asleep. The Supreme Court of Heaven is open 24 hours a day, and nobody’s getting away with anything. So in all of your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. Notice the mandate is to cast your anxieties on him. Cast is a verb. The verb, and see if I can pronounce this right, means to throw or place upon him. Cast all your cares on him, your anxieties. That’s a feminine noun, and it’s marimna, and it means those things that cause you to be anxious are those things that cause you to be concerned. So cast any anxieties on him, things that cause you to be anxious, because why? He cares for you. That’s a divine promise from God, and what that simply means is that God only has your best interest at heart. If you don’t think so, go back to the opening verse that I gave you to start with. I know the plans I have for you, Jeremiah 29 11. Not for evil, but to give you a future and a hope. So remember that. I know the plans I have for you. God has plans for you. And God has plans for our client nation. Do you believe that? And can you trust that the Supreme Court of Heaven is judging our future? Can you do that? Can you trust in the Lord? Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Can you trust in the Lord? It’s critical that you do that. It’s critical that you remember that. Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean to your own understanding. Acknowledge him and that requires you to use a faith rest drill. And that’s the key to having a relaxed mental attitude. The faith rest drill, problem solving device number three. Do you know what it is? Do you even know any of the 10 problem solving devices? If you don’t, please contact me. I can send you a book called Christian Problem Solving that’ll lay all 10 of them out. I can send you a bookmark. It’ll have all 10 problem-solving devices on it. But you must understand these 10 problem-solving devices if you intend to live a successful Christian life. You can’t do it without them. Because without them, you’ll be trying to function on human energy and human resources, and it doesn’t work. So trust in the Lord, Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Don’t lean to your own understanding. Acknowledge him, and that requires you to use a faithless drill, and that’s the key to keeping that relaxed mental attitude. What is a relaxed mental attitude? Well, very plainly, Isaiah 26 three, you keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind, that’s your thoughts, your intents, your desires, whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. That’s faith. Faith, rest, drill. So the perfect peace that we’re talking about comes when you concentrate on on the plan of God and trust God that he’s in control. He knows the plans he has for you and they’re not to hurt you, not to harm you, but to give you a wonderful life. So sit back, enjoy the show. Isaiah 40 verse 31, but they who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They shall do what? They shall mount up with wings like eagles and shall run and never be weary and walk and not faint. Amazing promise for you. In regards to current politics in America, do you think God knows what’s even going on? Do you think he’s not in control of coming events? Our job as Christians is simply to obey the Lord. Romans 12, 12, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer. Rejoice in hope, that word hope, what does that mean? I’ll explain it here in a minute. Rejoice in hope, that’s the first mandate. And be patient in tribulation, that’s the second mandate. And then what? Be constant in prayer, that’s the third mandate. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. That’s essentially what your Christian life is made out of. So what does that mean, rejoice in hope? Hope is the word elpis, E-L-P-I-S. And it simply means absolute confidence in the plan of God. For example, in the Bible, in Colossians 1.27, Christ in you is the hope of glory. Christ in you is not a hope, it’s a confidence. This is not a hope like what you and I say, I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, or I hope I get a check in the mail. That’s not it. this this hope is a different type of hope this is a confidence this is a confidence in god’s plan for your life so remember that christ in you that’s your confidence the hope of glory all right so hope is the assurance and the comfort in revelation excuse me in relation to things that are future things that are going to come. It’s a mental attitude of confident expectation towards something magnificent, but something that’s not yet even present. Hope is the assurance and the comfort in relation to things that are future. A mental attitude of confident expectation towards something magnificent, but it may not yet be present. That’s what hope is. It is that confident assurance. So there are basically three types of hope taught in the Bible. Hope one is the confident expectation of the unbeliever who knows that when he makes a decision to believe in Jesus Christ, he will have eternal life. because the Bible says these things are written that you might know that you have eternal life. He that has a son has life, and he that has not the son of God has not life. So God doesn’t lie. When you come to the cross, when you put your faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, you are saved, you are given eternal life, and he doesn’t take it back. Christ said, I’ll never leave you, I’ll never forsake you. I give unto them eternal life, and no one shall pluck them out of my Father’s hand. That is the most amazing, fulfilling promise in the whole world, that once you receive Christ as your Savior, no one, no one can ever take away your eternal life that God gives you through faith alone in Christ alone. So that’s the first hope. Hope one, confident expectation that when we believe in Christ, we have eternal life. And then there’s hope two. What is that? Hope too is the motivation of the immature believer who’s trying to grow. Maybe that’s you trying to grow up spiritually. Maybe you’ve been listening to these radio shows and you realize you need to grow spiritually. You need to be under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor teaching you the Bible so you can apply it into your life. Hope too is that motivation of the immature believer who’s who realizes, who knows, who trusts that if he keeps learning, if he persists in studying and applying God’s word, he will be allowed to reach spiritual maturity and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and his life to the maximum. That’s why the Bible tells you to redeem the time. Redeem the time. Don’t waste time, you only got so much time. And redeeming the time, what you do when you redeem the time is you’re buying days. God is going to let you stick around until you reach maturity if you’re serious about this. Now, if you’re not, if you just want to play tiddlywinks with God, take your best shot because no guarantees. But if you want to live a full, wonderful life, the Bible tells you how to do it. Grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So that’s the second hope, the hope that you will reach maturity and you will be able to glorify God as God promised you. And then hope three, that’s the attitude of the mature believer who now looks beyond the barrier of time into heaven, into his eternal rewards. And this is a confident expectation again, not a hope, it’s a confident expectation. Matthew 25, 21. His Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord. That’s exactly what you want to hear. You don’t want to hear, oh, hey, Fred, you made it. Good job. Have a seat over there. I’ll get to you in a thousand years. No. You want some applause to be in heaven when you walk in. You want to hear that, well done, my good and faithful servant. Good and faithful servant. Two qualities that are essential. Good, that’s divine good, not human good. Faithful, that’s the faithless drill. That’s fidelity in your life. That’s being faithful. And servant, that’s the word doulos. That’s the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. So you were faithful over the few things while you’re on earth. Now I’m going to make you a ruler over many things in heaven. Come on in and enjoy the ride. That’s hope three, that you will have a wonderful eternal life based on the confidence of what God had. In Romans 12, 12, we have the commandment to this, to be patient in tribulation. What does that verse say that we looked at? Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer. Be consistent in prayer. Stick with it. So, patient in tribulation. The word patience used here is hupomeno, hupomeno. H-U-P-O-M-E-N-O. Now you say, why do you say those words? That’s the Greek New Testament word. We’re looking at it from the English, but we’re translating it back into the Greek. Hupomeno is the word patient, but actually it’s the word tribulation in the Greek language. Tribulation. It means for you to be patient in circumstances… that are beyond your control or to abide under or remain in place. In other words, don’t let the adverse circumstances discourage you or dislodge you or defeat you. That’s what happens. When bad things hit into your life, if you don’t use the flat line in your soul, if you don’t use those problem-solving devices, you lose your patience. You get knocked off your feet. You’re not able to stand securely. That’s why the Bible tells you to put on the armor of God so that you can stand against the strategy of Satan. He has a strategy, and that strategy is to defeat you spiritually and discourage you and actually to consume your life so that you don’t have any impact for the Lord Jesus Christ. Hupomeno means patience in tribulation. Patience with people is another word in the Greek Bible. We have the word hupomino, hupomino meaning patient and circumstances, but there’s also the word patience with people, and that’s the Greek word makrothumia. Makrothumia is not the same word. And that means for you to be patient with regards to people or circumstances in your life. And then finally, the word anoche, A-N-O-C-H-E. And that’s better translated to hold back or to be restrained in the face of provocation. And in Romans 2, 4, Paul uses forbearance and longsuffering and anoche and macrothymia. Here it is, listen to it, Romans 2, 4. Or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance? That’s a no-kay. That’s the word a no-kay. It means he holds back. And his long-suffering macrothymia. Do you not know that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? so god is holding back he’s not willing that any should perish not even one he’s very patient he’s very long-suffering he’s very enduring wanting all of us to come to the knowledge of salvation through faith alone in christ alone in second peter 3 9 god is patient with the unbeliever the bible says not wanting anybody to perish so we’re told to be patient in tribulation in romans 12 12 be patient and tribulation The ellipsis is the word tribulation, and it means pressing circumstances, being pressed under circumstances, burdened on your spirit. It could be politics. It could be adversity in family matters. It could be any amount of circumstances, financial circumstances. How does the believer handle this? He is to be what? Hupomeno. He’s to be patient. He’s to use a faithless drill. He’s to remain in place. He’s not to let his emotions take over, not to get sidetracked, not to get discouraged, not to be defeated, not to be dislodged. Be patient in tribulation. What does that mean? It means that you keep moving on day by day. You keep your eyes on the Lord. You keep your eyes on the objective and move forward. Listen to Proverbs 24 10. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. you’re going to have days of adversity you’re going to have times that you don’t understand you’re going to go through conflicts and chaos and confusion even as we’re going through it in this nation today how do you deal with it you are patient you turn it over to the lord you use a faith rest drill you keep your relaxed mental attitude and above all don’t lose your sense of humor because if you start taking yourself too serious you’re going to burn out i promise you this is why it’s so critical for you to have a flat line in your soul. You must have a flat line in your soul. It’s critical that you have that flat line in your soul because if you don’t, Proverbs 24 10 is talking about you. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. That means you wimp out. You can’t handle it. You move rather from thinking. You’re not thinking now. You move from thinking to emoting. If you let your emotions take over, you’re going to react to circumstances. If you think, you’re going to respond to circumstances. So let’s say something bad happens. You can get mad, angry, bitter, frustrated, upset about the tribulation, or you can relax, keep an RMA. Know that God had it in eternity past. God knew it was going to happen to you. You have nothing, no sweat, nothing to worry about it. Just enjoy the ride and watch what the Lord’s about to do. That’s why you have a flat line in your soul and that’s why it’s so critical. It’s critical that you have that. And that’s why Romans 12, 12 goes on to say these words, be constant in your prayers. This is the apostles’ encouragement for believers in Rome regarding their lives and their future, as well as a reminder for each of us that there is power in prayer. Tremendous power in prayer. In our case, as believers in a client nation called the United States of America, we have this mandate to encourage us. 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 4. Therefore, I exhort, first of all, that all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. for all men, listen to what I’m about to read now, for kings and for all who are in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. I don’t know if you just heard what I read to you, but listen again. I exhort, first of all, that prayers and supplications and intercessions and thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority. Oops, oops, uh-oh. You mean I’m supposed to pray for the president? I’m supposed to pray for the leader of the Senate? I’m supposed to pray for what? I don’t like those people. I don’t like them at all. I’m not gonna pray for them. Well, then you don’t quite understand the Christian life yet, do you? Here it is right in front of your nose. What are you gonna do with it? I encourage you that all prayers, supplications, intercession, giving of thanks be made for all men, kings, and all who are in authority. Don’t forget God’s in control. He knows what’s going on. Some people are placed in certain places for a reason. So if you link that verse up I just gave you to Romans 12, 19, listen to this. This will stop you in your tracks. Romans 12, 19. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it’s written, vengeance is mine, God said. I will repay, says the Lord. God didn’t put you in charge of straightening anybody out. You have a hard time keeping your own life straight. So you’re going to straighten out the politics of this country? I don’t think so. You don’t like so and so, so and so. Okay, I understand that. What are you supposed to do about it? Keep your mouth shut. Pray for all men. Thanksgiving be made for all men, for kings and those that are in authority. Pray for supplications, intercession. What do you pray? Well, you pray that God would reveal his plan to them so that they would understand it and follow it. If you’re bitter about recent events in American politics, and many people are, what have you done about it? Oh, I know you complain to your friends. You wrote letters to the authorities. You judge and malign the officials you don’t like. What about just simply taking the matter to the Supreme Court of Heaven? What about interceding for the leaders that you don’t like or even resent? When’s the last time you even prayed for your government officials? And let me remind you, That your prayers will definitely not be heard if you have unconfessed sin in your life. In Psalm 66, 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And mental attitude sins are some of the worst types of sin. Bitterness, hatred, implacability all quench the Holy Spirit and all limit his ability to intercede for you in your prayers. If the Holy Spirit’s not controlling your life, your prayer life’s not going to work. Romans 8, 26, likewise the Spirit helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He intercedes for you in prayer, but if you quench the Spirit and grieve the Spirit with unconfessed sin in your life, it’s not going to work. Therefore, Ephesians 4, 30, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you’re sealed until the day of redemption. And that verse is followed by this one. Let all bitterness, all wrath, all anger, all clamor, all evil speaking be put away from you along with all of your malice. Remember, it’s not an elected official who can turn around the course of history. It’s you. It’s only you. It’s only you and your spiritual life that can change the course of history. That’s why 2 Chronicles 7, 14 says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I’ll hear from heaven and I’ll forgive their sin and heal their land. My people, that’s you. Are you one of God’s children? What does he tell you to do? Humble yourselves. Quit judging people. Quit being arrogant and judging people. Pray. Intercede for them as the verses I gave you a while ago. And seek my face. Turn out on your wicked ways. You’re complaining. You’re griping, maligning, criticizing, backbiting. and trust from the Lord, and he will forgive your sin and heal your land. There’s only one way to change the course of American history, and that’s for you as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ to grow up spiritually, get control of your mouth, get control of your attitude, and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ with what you think. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention. This is a strong message. I hope you’re paying attention. I hope you’ll 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 Flatline 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.
