Join host Rick Hughes on The Flatline as he delves into understanding the distinct differences between rituals and genuine spiritual growth. With a focus on Christian life, this episode aims to guide listeners through unveiling the mechanics behind living by the Spirit rather than merely practicing human traditions. Rick shares personal stories, insights into the battle between the flesh and the spirit, and emphasizes the necessity of growth and understanding within the Christian 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 01 :
Good morning and welcome to The Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, please stay with me. I promise this is just going to be a short time of motivation, some inspiration, some education, all without any type of manipulation because we don’t con people. We’re not soliciting money. We’re not trying to sell you something. We’re not going to ask you to join anything, but what we would like for you to do is to listen. Listen as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And that’s this, we’ve done a significant revision of our book called Christian Problem Solving. What it does, it lists all 10 problem solving devices we cover on the Flatline. I think you’ll find this new book a great resource and it’s really got a lot of detailed chapters, scriptures, problem solving devices, along with anything else that you need to understand it. This new book should be available in early June, so if you want it, contact us and we’ll put your name on the list. and we will be sure to send it to you when it’s ready. We’re also printing a revision of our book, A Divine Pardon, and I wrote that book for those that are incarcerated or their loved ones, so let us know if you want a copy of this book, and we’ll be happy to send it to you in June. We have several more books in the works, so stay tuned. We offer all these books free of charge. We don’t sell anything. We don’t peddle anything. We just want to give you the information. So please take advantage of that. If you need to contact us at any time, you can go to rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org, or call us at 800-831-0718. There is one thing I’d like to request from you. I’d like to know if you’re listening. Just please let me know. We broadcast in 110 cities, and we would always like to know who’s listening and what cities they’re in, and the radio stations, of course, have no way to tell us, and no one sponsors this show. We pay for it ourself, and you’ll hear that on this announcement, but if you’re listening, just please give us a shout-out in the email. Give us a shout-out somehow or another. Let us know in your city, wherever you may be, that you are listening. Today, I want to go over something critical for you to understand. I think it’s critical, and I’m going to be a bit tough with it, so please pardon me if I sound a bit tough, but I became a Christian, in August of 1967. The night of my conversion, I was told to invite Jesus into my heart. You imagine that? That’s what I was told. I needed to invite Jesus into my heart. I didn’t really understand what that meant, but I mean, I did it. I did what the guy told me to do. I got down on my knees and I prayed and I asked Jesus to come into my heart. Now, God honored that prayer in spite of me not understanding what I was actually doing. And as I started to read the Bible, I had to learn what one must do to be saved, what one must actually believe. And I told God many times in my prayers after that that I believed His Son, Jesus Christ, was the Savior of the world and that I wished to trust Him for my salvation. And I understood I only needed to do it one time, not two times, not three times, not four times. Once was enough. I later learned that God had given me the gift of evangelism. That was a shock. And because of this, I began to have opportunities to speak and preach at various places, various functions, various churches. And the problem was I had a lot of enthusiasm, but I had very little mechanics. And I know God honored his word in spite of how I might have butchered the message. So let me give you a prime example of what I’m talking about. At one point in time in the early 70s, I was speaking at a church in Mississippi and holding a week-long quote revival. Now, I don’t do revivals anymore. I got away from doing revivals. I’ll explain that to you later. But after having altar calls for people to come forward and be saved, I decided to have an altar call for Christians to come and rededicate their lives. Now, maybe you’ve seen this happen in your church. I bet you have. On this particular evening, a young man came forward and said he wished to rededicate his life to Christ. And all was great so far, I thought, since someone came to the altar. However, the individual asked me a question I could not answer. Here’s the question, how do I rededicate? And my answer was just pray and rededicate. And he said, pray what? And I said, well, one, two, three, rededicate me. And he said, I tried it before, it didn’t work. The problem was this individual had a particular sin that he kept doing, And he wanted to get victory over that sin. And he wanted to get victory over it due to his guilt and his shame. And he knew he should ask God to forgive him when he did his sin, but that’s all that he really knew. I am ashamed to admit this to you, but it’s true. I’m ashamed to admit that I did not really understand the mechanics of the Christian life at that time. I knew very little about it. So I used spiritual cliches to cover my lack of understanding. So at least I sounded spiritual, even though I knew nothing about the filling of the Holy Spirit or rebound or the faith rest and drill. Eventually, my father, your heavenly father, led me to Baraka Church in Houston, Texas. and the ministry of Reverend Bob Thieme, and it was there that I began to put the pieces together and develop my understanding of how the Christian life functions. There are many game players in Christianity today. You know that, and I know that, and everything from the weird to the obscene. I mean, come on, let’s look at some of the game players in the church today. Here you go, listen. Have you heard this phrase in your religious experiences? Here it comes, listen up. Just turn it over to Jesus, brother. Have you heard that? How about this phrase? I surrender all. Maybe you heard let go and let God. How about the bracelet? What would Jesus do? Or just pray about it, brother. When I think of the price our Lord paid in order for us to have eternal life and to understand his spiritual plan, it frustrates me and displeases me that no believers are sloppy in their application. Because many Christians sell out for some cheap emotional experience and call it their spiritual life. They go to some camp, they go to some retreat, married couple retreat, single retreat, teenage retreat, and get emotional experience and promise God they’re never gonna sin again, and that lasts about two days. These people never see the need to grow up spiritually and to be the spiritual professional, listen to that word again, spiritual professional that God expects you to be. Remember this, growing old is inevitable. I can testify to that. But growing up is optional, and that’s as far as Christian life goes. Now you might wonder, why is he bringing this up? Well, the simple truth is this. So many Christians that I meet and know say or do things that just have no basis and no impact. Many of these folks look holy. They even say holy sounding things. But in reality, it’s only human good and often just some sort of goofy religious saying that has no merit at all. I want to refer you to the word protocol, P-R-O-T-O-C-O-L, protocol. Here’s what it means, that God has protocol. and he expects the right thing to be done in the right way. Protocol’s not hard to understand. If you met the president of the United States, you wouldn’t say, hey, Joe, how you doing? You’d say, Mr. President, this is protocol, whether you like it or not, Mr. President. And when you get to heaven, I got news for you. You don’t think you’re gonna walk up to God and slap him on the back and say, hey, it’s me, Herbie, I made it. That’s not gonna happen. There’s protocol in heaven as well. But the scriptures tell us exactly, exactly how to approach God in prayer, The scriptures tell us exactly how to defeat the lure of the flesh as well as how to defeat the attacks of Satan and even how to overcome the lure of the world. However, many believers don’t know the difference between the spiritual life and the physical life or even what the spiritual life actually involves. So I want to just ask you a question. Think about this for a minute and answer it to yourself. If I ask you this question, What is the single most important thing a new Christian should understand? What would be your answer? What is the single most important thing a new Christian should understand? What would you tell me? It should always be this. Do you understand this new life you now have in Christ cannot be lived apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit? This of course would mean teaching them how to rebound when they sin and when they fail. Most new believers don’t understand they still have a sin nature. And even though they’ve been saved or then born again, in my life’s experience, I was surprised to find that even though I had accepted Christ as my savior, I still had a tendency to commit sin. And I wondered why I would continue to sin if I’d truly been saved. Dang, it took me over a year before somebody taught me what was actually going on inside my mind. Listen as I read to you how Paul the apostle recognized the internal battle that he faced with his sin nature. In Romans 7, 15 through 20. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I will not to do, then I agree with the law that it’s good. But now it’s no longer I who does it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that’s in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I don’t find. For the good that I will to do, I don’t do. But the evil that I will not to do, that’s what I practice. Now, if I do what I will not to do, it’s no longer I who does it, but sin that dwells in me. Paul had a sin nature. You have a sin nature. The only person that’s ever been on this earth without a sin nature is the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why he had to be born of a virgin, sinless, spotless, because if he had had anything to do with Joseph conceiving him, he would have gotten the sin nature from Joseph. So it didn’t happen that way. She was a virgin, the Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary. Now, it’s truly astounding that a critical doctrine such as the flesh versus the spirit is not taught in many major denominations. I’ve been in most of them. Listen to what Paul says concerning this unseen battle. Galatians 5, 17, for the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit wars against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, so that you do not do the things you wish. Paul, the apostle, declared that the answer to this internal conflict is simply for us to walk in the spirit. Ephesians 5, 16, here it is, here’s the answer. I say then, walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of your flesh. Did you know that any one moment in your life, you’re either walking in the spirit or walking in the flesh? At any one moment in your life, you’re either in fellowship with God or you’re out of fellowship with God. Right now, wherever you are, at home, in a car, wherever you are, you’re either in fellowship or out of fellowship. You’re either carnal or spiritual. There’s no in between. There’s no gray area. You’re either out of fellowship with God because you sinned and have not confessed that sin as per Rebound, 1 John 1, 9, or you did it and you’re in fellowship with God and you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. So any one moment in your life is critical. If the sin nature controls you, then the Bible says you quench the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5, 19, do not quench the Holy Spirit. And that’s not a request, that’s a mandate. Because when you’re quenching the Holy Spirit, he’s grieved, Ephesians 4.30. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed by the day of redemption. So you’re told not to quench the Spirit and not to grieve the Spirit. Quenching the Spirit is sort of like taking a water hose and bending it so the water won’t come out. And if you grieve the Holy Spirit, you essentially make him sorrowful that he can’t do his job. You shut him out. This is not taught today. This is not even brought up today. It’s not even mentioned today. I’m not talking about a backslider. I’m not talking about a reversionist. This is a person that commits one sin, such as a mental attitude sin, maybe a sin of the tongue. So if you show up to church with one, one, O-N-E, just one unconfessed sin, then you’re sitting there out of fellowship, quenching the Holy Spirit. This is called being in the right place in the wrong way. Now, one sin, yes, one sin quenches the Holy Spirit and grieves the Holy Spirit. You would not want your pastor in the pulpit preaching a message to you with one unconfessed sin in his life. Let’s say he and his spouse had an argument that morning before church or he and the children got in a fuss and he did not confess his sin to God, his loss of his temper and his frustration and his anger, which are sins. Anybody got in the pulpit and he preached to you, Now, God can use his word. He always does. But what that man just did is called energy of the flesh. He did it in the flesh, not in the power of the Holy Spirit. And if you’re seated in church with unconfessed sin in your life, you are in the right place, but you’re in the wrong way. I know what you’re thinking. Here it is. Let me say what you’re thinking. You’re saying, it’s impossible to me to name every sin I commit. I can’t remember those. Listen to what the Bible says again, 1 John 1, 9. This is problem-solving device number one. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. All unrighteousness. All unrighteousness. You hear that? Even the ones you don’t know or don’t remember. Yes. So, you know, if you commit a sin at 7 a.m., and you’re out of fellowship, chances are you’re going to commit another sin before 7.30 and maybe another sin before 8, maybe another sin before 9, maybe a lot of sins. And you might not remember all of them, but if you go to the Father and at least admit the ones you remember, then he can cleanse you from the ones you don’t remember. What does that do? It puts you back in fellowship with God. It puts you back under control of the Holy Spirit. This is critical because you cannot learn God’s word out of fellowship. You cannot cycle God’s word through your soul out of fellowship. If you intend to truly worship God, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit when you’re at church. You must be advancing in your spiritual life by learning God’s word on a consistent basis and then applying it to every detail in your life. Let me ask you a question. How can you worship a God who you don’t obey or you don’t even consider his mandates? And you say you love God and yet you don’t obey him. Just because you show up at church, just because you sing hallelujah, just because you follow some ritual does not mean you’re worshiping. Here’s what God said in Hosea 4.6. Let’s get this down. Let’s remember this in regards to our nation and what’s going on. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Since you rejected knowledge, I will reject your children. Not because of sin, not because of all the bad stuff that I could name and you could name that’s going on in this country today. Because of lack of knowledge. What does that mean? Lack of knowledge. We have very few pastors in pulpit today who give much knowledge to the congregation. And the result is simply a lot of ritual services without reality to it. For example, let me get you this question. Has your pastor ever said these words, did you feel the presence of God here tonight? Has this some sort of emotional worship service invoked the presence of God? Remember this, God is omnipresent. He’s imminent. He’s transcendent. He was present in that building before you got there, and he will be present in that building when you leave. And you’re not going to get any more of God to show up by getting emotional. If you question why I bring these things up, listen to these strong biblical commands that are found in the scripture. Matthew 7, 15, and 16. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing. These are religious people. But inwardly, they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. This is what a friend of mine called the canine clergy. These are men in the ministry who seek to manipulate you into their way of thinking and eventually exploit you financially and emotionally. Look out. They’re ravenous wolves. So beware is a mandate, pay attention to, wake up. In Matthew 11, 29, listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ himself said to you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your soul. Notice this, the Lord Jesus Christ offers rest from religious manipulation. If you learn, if you learn, take my yoke and learn from me. Learn what? What am I supposed to learn? Well, if you go to John 15, 11, and you look at John 15, 11, there are two words there that say, these things I taught you. These things is an antecedent referring to everything taught between John 13 and John 15, 11. And there are 10 or 12 major doctrines taught there that Lord Jesus Christ exposed the disciples to. Now it’s all written down for you to learn. And the Lord Jesus Christ said the Holy Spirit’s going to come and he will help you learn these things. But he can’t help you if he’s quenched and grieved. If you’re sitting in church and you quenched the Holy Spirit because of your sin and you haven’t confessed it and you grieve the Holy Spirit, you’re not going to learn anything. Oh, you’ll hear their message. And you might be able to stay awake, but you’re not gonna be able to make the cycle of application into your soul. We call it metabolization of the word of God. You can’t metabolize it. It’ll be shut down and it’ll be called knowledge or gnosis. The Bible makes a distinction between gnosis and epi-gnosis. The difference is this, gnosis is knowledge and epi-gnosis is full knowledge. Full knowledge is information you’ve heard and applied Knowledge is information you’ve heard and didn’t do anything with it. So grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3.18. Grow, a mandate, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Knowledge, my people destroyed for lack of knowledge. Knowledge, knowledge. 2 Timothy 2.15, study to show thyself approved to God. Why? So you don’t have to be ashamed. You can rightly divide the word of truth. What do you have to get? Some knowledge. You have to learn about the protocol plan of God, and that’s why we teach those 10 problem-solving devices. That’s the knowledge you need to understand to understand how the Christian life functions. The verb for learn, grow, study, these are all mandates. They’re not requests. It’s not God asking you to do this. You’re being told to do this. Why? Why the demand to learn, study, and grow? The answer is very simple. Our Lord said in Jeremiah 9, 24, these words, let the one that brags brag about this, that he knows me and understands me. He knows me and understands me. Do you understand the God you know? Or have you just been playing church? Yes, you’re faithful to go. Yes, you go to Sunday school. Yes, you tithe. Yes, you go to worship service. Yeah, yep, you go. Are you learning anything? You are. Let’s see, if you go to church for 30 minutes on Sunday and get something, if you put a kid in the first grade and they go for 30 minutes a week, they’re never gonna get out of the first grade. Even if you go on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday and get an hour and a half of instruction a week, you’re not going to get out of the first grade an hour and a half a week, and that’s what’s going on. Our pulpits are not teaching the word of God. That’s what allowed the fog to settle across America. Failure of spiritual leadership, open rebellion in the streets, God’s word rejected, F-O-G, the fog that settled across America. It’s not being taught. We’re becoming Christian recreational centers. Let’s take a trip for Jesus. Let’s go here. Let’s go there. Let’s go bowling. Let’s go to this. Let’s go to that. And keep everybody entertained. What we need to do is feed the flock. That’s what the Bible says. Feed the flock. Learn, grow, study. The demand to study is so that you will understand the God you know and the God you say you love. So this is the big question I have to ask you. Do you understand him? Do you understand the God you know? Do you wish to understand him and his plan? If you don’t, that’s fine. I mean, that’s up to you. But remember this, you will be evaluated and you will be rewarded based on your divine good production at the judgment seat of Christ. And all those good things you did, you know, the good things you did in the wrong way, all that’s going to do is produce a nice, big bonfire. 1 Corinthians 3, 11 through 16. I mean, I’ve told you before, and I’m going to tell you again and again and again. I am looking for those people who are hungry to grow spiritually. I’m looking for those people who say, you know, I’m not getting it. I’ve got a hunger in my heart to understand my God, and I’m not being taught anything. Can I help you? Well, I can do what I can do over the radio and over the podcast that we offer, yes. Or I can direct you where there is a well-qualified pastor that can teach you these things. But it’s really up to you. It’s your volition. Do you want it? I mean, I have known people that picked up and moved to a location where they could sit in a local church and be taught the Word of God. That was the most important thing in their life. That’s what I’m looking for, those that are hungry, hungry to grow spiritually, because that’s the only way you’re gonna bring maximum glorification to God, and that is the only way this client nation will be delivered from what’s headed our way, and it’s coming sooner than you think. It’s called national discipline, and it’s headed for us. So let me give you a few verses out of Revelation 3, 15 through 16. And this may remind you of what you could expect in the future. Listen to what our Lord said. I know your works, but you’re neither hot nor are you cold. Oh, I wish you were hot or cold. So then, because you are just lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. That’s talking about just a lukewarm person, a person that should grow up to be a spiritually mature believer, a person that should glorify God to the max, but they don’t. They’re fine being lukewarm. Now, some people may say, are you on fire for Jesus, brother? That’s not what I’m talking about. That’s just a religious cliche to get you emotionally fired up. What I’m talking about is are you consistent in the daily learning and application of God’s Word in your soul. You can do it in your home. You don’t have to be at church every night. Most churches don’t even offer services except twice a week. I can tell you how to study at home every day, how to use the internet, how to use the podcast, how to take God’s Word, get your Bible, get your notebook, sit down, take notes, and apply it into your life, but be sure you’re filled with the Spirit. If you don’t rebound, you cannot be filled with the Spirit. And if you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, then you can control the desires of the flesh. Are you the lukewarm believer that the Lord’s going to spew out of his mouth because you half-heartedly put your effort into growing up? Are you glorifying God to the max? I don’t know. That’s a question you’ll have to answer. But I like what Joshua said. As for me and my house, we’ll serve the Lord. I hope you’re thinking about this. I hope it rings a bell. I hope you’ll reach out to me and say, where do I get it? How can I start learning consistently? I’ll be back next week, same time, same place. Until then, my prayer is that you will understand these things I’ve said today. God bless you.
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.
