In this engaging episode, Rick Hughes brings clarity and understanding to the spiritual tests that believers experience. With a focus on the power of Christ, Hughes explains how the teachings from the apostles, particularly the Apostle Paul, underscore the transformative nature of spiritual challenges. Discover the value of yoking with Christ and how embracing His light burden can lead to a life of purpose, humility, and spiritual empowerment. This episode offers a guide to achieving a more profound Christian life through the insights of Scriptures.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, I’d like to invite you to stick around. 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education, and absolutely no manipulation. We don’t hustle money. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We are just trying to give you some biblical information that will help you verify as well as identify the plan of God for your life. And if we can do that, then you’re free to orient and adjust to the plan. I’d like to thank you for listening. Thank you so much for the letters. I get so many letters written to me and people telling me they’re listening and they’re growing and they’re finding a pastor they can sit under and learn under. That’s the best news I could hear because I’m not your pastor. I’m just one encouraging you to grow spiritually. and to find a well-qualified pastor that you can study under. We have made available many resources from our website. That’s rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. That’s our website on the internet. Don’t get it mixed up with Richard Hughes. That’s another person. That’s not me. There’s also a guy called Richard Hughes Ministries. That is not me. That’s another man. So if you’d like to go to our website and see what’s available and listen to some of the shows that we’ve got, they’re all played right there on our website. And you can see the various books we have made available. A lot of our young people like to listen on the podcast. We just rounded one million listeners on the podcast. That doesn’t mean they’re listening every day, but one million shows have been played on the podcast. And some of our older folks, like myself, like to look at it in print. So sometimes people ask me, do you have a transcript of that radio show? And the answer is yes, we do. We have books of transcripts of past years and we also have current transcripts of current radio shows. So if you’d like to read about it or read it and can’t hear it again, you want to read it and we can send you the transcript if you just contact us. at our 800 number, 800-831-0718, 800-831-0718. Now, thank you again for listening. Thank you for your prayer support and your encouragement and your letters. It’s always wonderful to hear from you. Today, I’d like to talk to you about something that’s very critical that we learn and critical that we understand, and that’s testing that we all go through. All of us as believers will go through testing I want to take you to the Apostle Paul and the testing that he went through. He called it a thorn in the flesh. And how he handled it was rather unique. In 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10, he writes about what happened to him as a result of his visions that he went through. And here’s what he said, writing to the Corinthians, whom he had several letters to them. There were a lot of trouble in that church. And there are a couple of letters he wrote that didn’t make it into the Bible. You might not know that, but there are. But in this particular passage in 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 10, he said, and least I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelation. That’s what he saw in heaven. A thorn in the flesh was given to me. It was a messenger of Satan to buffet me. That’s a type of undeserved suffering. And he said, it happens lest I be exalted above measure. In other words, I don’t want to get the big head. So concerning this thing, I asked the Lord three times that it would depart from me. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weaknesses. Therefore, because of this, most gladly I would rather boast in my weaknesses, in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. The question that I want to ask you is what is the power of Christ? What does that mean? The power of Christ may rest upon me. You may be going through certain things in your life and you may be asking God to take it away. And God may be telling you, my grace is sufficient. It’s really something you need, not something you need to get rid of. And God gave Paul this for a reason so that he would not be exalted above measure. So he said grace is sufficient and the power of Christ would carry him through. The power of Christ may rest upon me. This is external pressure Paul faced. It’s called a thorn in the flesh, a constant nagging, a constant uncomfortable situation, much like the pain of a nagging toothache or maybe arthritis that you and I may have. And remember what he said concerning this, I pleaded, I pleaded with the Lord three times. I can just see Paul on his knees praying, take it away, Lord, please take it away. And God said, every time my grace is sufficient because my strength is made perfect in your weakness. And so finally, Paul recognized that and said, most gladly, I would rather boast in my infirmities so that the power of Christ may rest on me. The power of Christ may rest on me. The question is, what is the power of Christ? This passage is known as the study of Paul’s thorn in his flesh. And it was his second letter to the Corinthians. Technically, Satan had managed to create doubt in Paul’s leadership as a claim to be apostle. And so there was all sorts of turmoil going on in the church. And there was a wave of mistrust, a wave of satanic attack on Paul’s ministry. And there’s no doubt he warned them not to let Satan get an advantage by stirring up doubt and confusion in the church. Here’s what he wrote in 2 Corinthians 2.11, lest Satan should get an advantage over us, we don’t need to be ignorant of his devices. Question is, why was Paul suffering? And we suffer for one or two reasons, either punishment or blessing. In Colossians 3.25, for he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong that he’s done. And with God, there is no partiality. But sometimes there’s suffering for blessing. In 1 Corinthians 10, 13, no testing has overtaken you, but such is its common demand. And God, who is faithful, will not permit you to be tested beyond your capability, but But with the testing, we’ll provide the solution so that you will be able to endure it. The principle is that God equips each one of us, all of us, to glorify him as we go through testing. And this could be people testing, system testing, evidence testing. All these are known as momentum testing. These advance your spiritual life. You must go through this testing to advance. This is why the Lord allows you to have it. And when we’re under these testing that God puts on us, it’s always to glorify God. He’s always faithful to us. He doesn’t abandon us. Whatever the testing is, he equips us to handle it. And the solution is to stay in the power of the unique spiritual life that God has provided for you and I. And so Paul said these words, he said, most gladly, I would rather boast in my weaknesses and my infirmities so that the power of Christ may rest on me. Whatever the power of Christ is, it’s available to you also. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ is God. And he has unlimited power. As God, he’s omniscient. He’s all-knowing. As God, the Lord Jesus Christ is omnipotent. He’s all-powerful. As God, the Lord Jesus Christ is omnipresent, which means he’s eminent and transcendent. So acquiring biblical wisdom, learning the word of God, learning the scriptures, understanding the mechanics of the protocol plan of God, give you the capability to grasp what’s going on in your life. Biblical wisdom is understanding. It’s insight, discernment, it’s tapping into the thoughts of God. In other words, you can know what God knows as he has revealed it to you in the scriptures. Hebrews 4.12 tells you that, for the word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of your soul and your spirit and the joints and the marrows and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of your heart. So the omnipotence of Christ, the power of Christ, is accessible through your faith. It’s the same power that sustained him during his earthly ministry, and that power is available to you as a Christian. Listen to 2 Timothy 1, 7. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Power is the word I want you to look at. Dunamis is the Greek word. We get the English word dynamite. That’s a force, a strength, an ability to face testing. This power is realized by using the scripture if it’s resident in the mentality of your soul. But it’s got to be there. It’s got to be in your soul. It can’t get there if you don’t learn it. Note the power of your faith. Listen to this, the power of your faith. Matthew 17, 20. So Jesus said to them, because of your unbelief, For assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith, even like a little mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. In Hebrews 11.33, who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, and stopped the mouths of lions. Faith. The power of faith is unbelievable if you use it. That’s called the faith rest drill, problem-solving device number three. If you don’t understand those 10 unique problem-solving devices we teach on this radio show, order our book, Christian Problem Solving, and we’ll send it to you free of charge. And it will list all 10 of these, and you can understand what it means to live the faith-rest life. Notice the power of prayer again, 1 John 5, 14. Now this is the confidence we have in him that if we ask anything, anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know we have the petitions that we ask of him. God’s given us the spirit of power and of love. Agape is the word, Greek word, agape. Not phileos, not stokeo, not ereros. Erotic is the word you get from ereros. But agape. Agape. And John 1335 by this shall all men know you are my disciples. If, if, if you love one another, subjunctive, maybe you will, maybe you won’t. And of a sound mind, Paul said, Sophroniesmos is the Greek word. It means discipline or self-control. being able to control your emotions, not being led into false doctrine by your friends who you trust. So how do you decide who you’re going to trust when there becomes a difference in what they believe? People write me letters sometimes and say, Rick, I like the way you teach, but I don’t believe this, or I don’t believe that, I don’t believe this. Well, you’re free to believe whatever you want to believe. I’m not here to straighten anybody out. And how do you deal with that? How do you decide who you’re going to trust? You must come from the word of God and the power of the scriptures. Because Ephesians 4 says that we may be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive us. So our Lord makes these things available to you, power and love and a sound mind. He left us a template, a template, the template of the spiritual life. The template is something that maybe a metal worker building something might design a template and use that to construct other things after he designed the template. He used it over and over and over again. He cuts out the same image. So in 2 Peter 2.21, For even here unto you were called because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that’s the template, so that you should follow in his steps. You were called as an heiress, constant of heiress of Kaleo. And this means that he called you in the past with the result he expects you to stay with it in the future. You were called because he suffered, pascoe, Christ produced the action of that verb. It’s not a passive voice. He didn’t receive it. He produced it. He suffered for us or on behalf of us, leaving us or bequeathing to us an example. The Greek word hupogramos is the word example. And it’s a noun. It’s used only here in the New Testament. And it means he left a pattern, a template derived from the verb hupografo. which means to write under or to trace. That word was used to designate the practice of writing letters or tracing the letters in order to learn how to write them. So the synonym that I choose to use would be a template, something which serves as a master pattern from which similar things could be made. His spiritual life as he walked here as a man is the template the Holy Spirit uses to cut us into his exact image. The template is the prototype spiritual life used by the Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry, and it’s passed on to us. So he left us an example, so that, purpose clause, we would follow, and that’s a subjunctive mood, maybe you will, maybe you won’t, so that we would follow, the Bible says, And then the power of Christ is available to each of us. That’s the master pattern or the template. That’s what the Holy Spirit uses to replicate Jesus Christ in you. Notice the option, whether you ever use it or not, it’s available. It depends on whether or not you were willing to learn and understand and whether you can comprehend these things, whether or not you’re even interested or whether you stick with it long enough to learn and utilize your spiritual skills. You have your own spiritual life. And what that means is you and you alone are responsible. Nobody else can live it for you. You’re the only one that can live it. But you cannot live it without the power and precedence that I’m talking about. The divine power. Problem-solving device number one, rebound. Problem-solving device number two, the filling of the Holy Spirit. Problem-solving device number three, the faith rest drill. You’ve got to learn how to use those. But when it’s completed… When the template is cut, when we begin to reproduce Christ, we are his workmanship, Ephesians 2.10, created in Christ Jesus under good works which God hath before ordained so that we should walk in them. Notice this, your volition is required. Your volition is required. Before God can put this template on you, before the Holy Spirit can cut you into the image of Christ, It requires your volition. In Matthew 11, 28, we have a rare imperative particle. Come, come unto me, all ye that are laboring, becoming weary. All of you are heavy laden, bearing burdens, and I will give you rest. Come, come, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Take my yoke. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is inviting you as a believer to yoke up with him. What is a yoke? What is that? That is the secret to tapping into the power of Christ. The word yoke is a Greek word called zougos, z-u-g-o-s, zougos. And it’s the connection, it’s a reference to a metaphor called yoke you put around your neck. We take off the yoke of human religious bondage and we replace it with his yoke of antecedent grace provisions, provisions made for you in eternity past. The aorist act of imperative of the verb I roll, take my yoke upon you and learn of me is an imperative treaty Connected with another imperative, manthano, learn, take, airo, learn, take, learn, take, learn, take, learn. It requires you to have some positive volition. What exactly are you supposed to learn? Well, the first thing we’re supposed to learn is what he said, I’m meek and lowly in heart. I’m humble. The Greek word pros, P-R-A-U-S, is a descriptive adjective referring to his demeanor. The Lord Jesus Christ was not given to mood swings, not given to anger, not given to hostility. He was not subject to arrogant, unrealistic expectations about himself. He handles his human emotions. He had total self-control. Does that sound like you? Are you given to mood swings? Do you get depressed, full of anxiety? Do you get angry? Do you get hostile? Do you have an unrealistic expectation about how people will treat you? Do your emotions get out of control? That’s not the Christian life. The second statement he’s made is I am lowly in heart. The Greek word tabanos, heart, cardia. What does this mean, lowly in heart? It’s another metaphor referring to his demeanor. The Oxford Dictionary says lowly has a sense of being humble in condition or quality, usually with a notion of being modest or unpretending. In Matthew, we see in Matthew 23, 11, he who is the greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted. That’s what it means to be lowly in heart. When you put humility and lowly together, what does it refer to? If you put these two words together in relationship to Jesus Christ, it means to be gentle and He had authority. He knew how to control it and when to exercise it. But at the same time, while he walked on this earth as a human, he was totally reliant on the Father, which set an example for us. Remember, that was the God-man. He never used his own deity to sustain his humanity. He never did that. He always depended on the Father, even though he himself was God. So Paul encourages you in Ephesians 4, 1 and 2. As a prisoner for the Lord, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you’ve received. Be completely humble, gentle, patient, and bearing one another in love. This Zougas prescription, the yoke I’m talking about, requires humility. Humility and teachability. Humility is horizontal virtue towards other people. Teachability is vertical virtue towards God. One is motivated by impersonal love for other people and the other is motivated by personal love for the father. So if you understand the concept of personal love and impersonal love, you can see what I’m talking about. You’ve got to love idiots. You’ve got to love jerks. You’ve got to love weird people. But you don’t love them based on who you are. They are, you love them based on who you are. That’s impersonal love. You’re loving based on your assets, your character, not theirs. That’s exactly what God did for you. God so loved the world, he did it for you. You were a jerk, you were an idiot, and he loved you first. He loved us before we ever loved him, 1 John says. So the Bible says, teach me your ways, O Lord, Psalm 86, 11. and then I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to respect and reverence your name. That’s vertical virtue. Our Lord goes on to say that this zougos, this yoke, will give you rest. The Greek word for rest is anapasis. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to work anymore. It doesn’t mean you never have to have a job, but it does mean refreshment. It means you don’t have to carry the burden of religion. The Pharisees had oversight and judgment and they were tough on people. And the Lord Jesus Christ said, when you come to me, I will free you from the oversight and the judgment of the Pharisees. Organized religion will never let you rest. Listen to me. Organized religion will never let you rest. They will force you to meet the requirements of organized religion. You gotta meet the requirements to work for your salvation. You gotta meet the requirements to work to demonstrate your dedication. You gotta work to demonstrate your spirituality, like tithing. If you don’t tithe, you’re not spiritual, they say. It’s not true. In Matthew 11, 30, Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The zugos is easy and the burden is light. So our Lord’s never going to ask you to submit to something that’s destructive or to submit to something that’s oppressive in your life. It’s not going to happen. It’s easy. It’s manageable. It’s kind. It’s fit for use. 1 Peter 2, 3 says, if indeed you’ve tasted, the Lord is gracious. It’s the same word we have for easy in that passage about the yoke. It’s the word krestos. My burden is easy. The word burden is used metaphorically as something you have to bear, something you have to carry. And it’s used in contrast to what the regulations of the Pharisees required, which was very oppressive. The Lord Jesus Christ said, my burden is easy and light, easy to bear. So here’s the principle. The yoke we’re talking about, the zougos, is not destructive, it’s not oppressive, but it’s rather illuminating and enabling. Illuminating, yes, Colossians 1.26, the mystery which has been hidden from all ages and from generations has now been revealed to his saints, illuminated. That’s Christ in you, the hope of glory. And enabling, what does that mean? The yoke enables you, enables you to do what? Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength. So the zougos is the power of Christ. And it transfers and transplants the mind of Christ into your mentality. So you no longer think like you used to think. Ephesians 4.22, so I want you to put off concerning your former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. That’s what the zugos does. It changes the way you think. Once you’re fitted with that zugos, that yoke, Once you’re connected by the virtue of the perfect pattern of God provided by the believer, then you’re able to match up perfectly with God’s plan for your life. So what I’m talking about, the power of Christ is a template. It’s the spiritual life of the Lord Jesus Christ passed on to you by means of the mentorship of God the Holy Spirit. You cannot replicate it with your own human dynamics. You can’t produce it with your own human energy that lacks any authenticity. That template I’m talking about took the Lord Jesus Christ 30 years to manufacture it before he began his ministry. But once he perfected it, it’s never worn out. Listen as I list some of the results of wearing the Zougas. The template. It will create in you compassion and graciousness. In Psalm 86, 15. But you, O Lord, are a God full of compassion and gracious and long-suffering and abundant in mercy and truth. It will create in you righteousness and justice. Psalm 89, 14. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Mercy and truth go before your face. It will sustain you and produce a lack of fear. Psalm 3, 6. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me. It will give you confidence. Psalm 3, verse 8. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me. Or Psalm 3.8, salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. It will give you a sense of protection. In Psalm 27.5, for in the times of trouble, he will hide me in his pavilion. In the secret place of his tabernacle, he will hide me. He shall set me high upon a rock. And it gives you love. Psalm 26.3, for your loving kindness is always before my eyes and I have walked in your truth. There it is. That’s some of the results of wearing that template. What God wants you to put on and wear, the Zougas prescription. It’s an amazing thing. What does it do eventually? 2 Thessalonians 1.12, so that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s your life. That’s what you need to wear. That’s what Paul talked about. Put on that template. Put on the yoke. That’s the power of Christ in your life. I hope next week you’ll come back, same time, same place. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Floodline.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
