Join host Rick Hughes on ‘The Flatline’ as he delves into the powerful concept of living a life free from fear and full of faith. Drawing on scriptures like Psalm 91 and 2 Timothy 1:7, Rick underscores the importance of divine protection and the spiritual resources available to believers. He passionately encourages listeners to embrace the love and courage that comes from a covenant relationship with God, emphasizing that fear is never part of God’s plan for His children.
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. For the next few minutes, please stick around. Simply 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, education, all done without any type of manipulation because we’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re not trying to get you to join up, not asking you to fess up, not to give up, but to just listen up. Listen as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if that’s possible, if it does happen, then you can orient and adjust to the plan if you’d like to. The plan always starts with you making a decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the single greatest decision you could ever make in your entire life. The Bible says, what think ye of Christ? If you’ve never made that decision, then I pity you because I know that you’re taking a gamble with your life. You’re taking a gamble with your future and with eternity destiny. So don’t gamble. That’s why the Bible says today is the day of salvation. If you’ve never made that decision, please consider it. Consider accepting Christ as your Savior while you have the opportunity to do so. Now, I want to remind you also of our website, rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. There you’ll find a list of all of our books that are available free of charge, especially the book Crash Course in Christianity and Christian Problem Solving. These books detail a lot for you. They’ll help you understand what the Christian life is all about. And I get emails every day saying, from people telling me I’m learning stuff I never knew before. And that’s wonderful. That’s why we have this show, to give you the basics of the Christian life and to point you towards a well-qualified pastor. And I hope you’ll find that pastor. I pray you find that pastor, the man that can shepherd you and feed your soul. Now, as we watch over events in the political world unfold in front of us, all of us kind of get a little weirded out about this. But is there any reason for us to actually be afraid? Is there? Does God offer protection for his children in times of national upheaval or national disaster? The question I’m asking you is should you be afraid of what might happen in the near future within this country? One of my close friends put it this way. I like what they said. Fear is a beast, especially for women who have to raise their children and watch them walk out the door alone from childhood into adulthood. It sure makes my prayer life very busy. You’ve heard me say hundreds of times on this particular radio show that adversity is inevitable, but stress or fear is optional. The provisions God has made available for you and I do no good if we don’t use them. If you have a flat line in your soul, like we teach those 10 problem-solving devices, if you have that in your soul’s mentality, then it’s entirely possible that And it’s reasonable for you to expect a life of divine advantage over the evils of the cosmic system. Please allow me to say that again. If you have a flat line in your soul, those 10 problem-solving devices, in the mentality of your soul, then it is entirely possible for you to expect, and it’s reasonable for you to expect a life with a divine advantage over the evils of the cosmic system. Now let’s examine some of those divine advantages that I’m talking about, the advantages that God has given to the one who loves him. In Psalm 91, 14 through 16, the Lord says, because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he’s loyal to me. When he calls out to me, I will answer him and I will be with him when he’s in trouble. I will rescue him and bring him honor. I will satisfy him with long life and let him see my salvation. Now that’s a wonderful verse for you to claim and understand and believe in your life. Are you devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ? That means do you stay filled with the Holy Spirit? Do you try to keep that old sin nature from controlling your life? Are you growing in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? The word devoted has a lot of different meanings, but it means devoted. Number one priority in your life, is it your relationship with God? Is it? If it is, then he promises to deliver you and to protect you. I’m reading the words, he will deliver you and protect you. Why? Because you are loyal to him. And when you call out, that’s prayer, I will answer. And I will be with him when he’s in trouble. That’s to walk right beside you. Remember the Bible says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. I will rescue him, that’s deliver him, and bring him honor. And I will satisfy him with a long life and will let him see my deliverance. As a parent protects a child, it’s interesting to note your Heavenly Father always watches over you. And I remind you that God does discipline his children, just as an earthly father would discipline his child. So keep that in mind. That discipline may include some sort of pain, but it’s always designed to keep us from destroying ourselves. For the believer, the Christian who maintains fellowship by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit and the one that is growing in grace by means of learning and applying the word of God into his life, then that person, and I hope it’s you, can take great comfort in the verses I’m about to read to you. Psalm 91, one through four. As for you, the one who lives in the shelter of the Most High and resides in the protective shadow of the Sovereign One, I say this about the Lord, my shelter, my stronghold, my God in whom I trust. He will certainly rescue you from the snares of the hunter and from the destructive plague. And he will shelter you with his wings. and you will find safety under his wings. He is faithful like a shield or a protective wall. What a great promise that is for you and for I. There’s nothing in your life that you need to surrender to fear. There’s no reason for you to ever be afraid because your heavenly Father watches over you and the Bible clearly says greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. But again, it’s a conditional clause. The first Psalm 91 I read said, because he’s devoted to me. This one says, for those of you who live under the shelter of the most high and reside in the protective shadow of the sovereign one. That’s believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The divine provisions that you are offered is a great confidence in God’s ability to provide your every need, everything you need, starting with you understanding what those provisions actually are. Here’s one for you, 2 Timothy 1.7 regarding fear. For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control. He’s not the author of fear. That comes from our own volition. It comes from our out-of-control emotions when we look at the problem and not the solution. To overcome fear, we must make a volitional decision to step back and trust our Heavenly Father. He provides us with the power to do this by the means of the filling of the Holy Spirit, problem-solving device number two, and the faith rest drill, problem-solving device number three. I remind you of what John wrote in 1 John 4, 18. Listen, about fear. There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love. So there’s no reason for you to be afraid. Fear is an emotion out of control in your life. But God did not give you the spirit of fear. You shall see power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, Jesus said, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. The original disciples certainly had a lot to fear, but the Lord told them, don’t be afraid. And I’m telling you the same thing. There is no fear in love. What does that mean? Well, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, etc., If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, fear is not a production. It’s not a cause from the filling of the Holy Spirit. That’s from the flesh. That’s from your emotion. So if you’re looking at our country and if you’re looking at what’s going on in the political arena and you’re afraid, don’t be. Finally, in 2 Timothy 1, 7, again, it says God gives us self-control. Again, I’ll read it for you. For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control. God gives us self-control. What does that mean? It means you have the ability to rule over your emotions. The Greek word out of the New Testament originally written in the Koine Greek language for self-control means is the word sophronismos. I know it doesn’t mean anything to you, but it means to have a sound mind. Sophronismos, to have a sound mind. And that’s the trait of a mature believer. The sound mind means you have insight and you have discernment. And where did that come from? It comes from the knowledge you acquired by means of your spiritual growth which is where you stockpile God’s wisdom in the mentality of your soul. And that’s a wonderful thing, to stockpile God’s wisdom and the mentality of your soul so that you will have insight and discernment from that knowledge that you stockpiled. Does the Bible actually say that? Well, certainly in Proverbs 3.13. How much happiness does the man have who finds wisdom and gains understanding? That’s the secret to happiness in your life, to understand what’s going on. Your eternal destiny is made possible, compliments of the grace of God, through the Lord Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for your sin on that cross. What a wonderful happiness that produces when you know you have eternal life with God. One of my prayers for you and anyone that listens is that this radio show will encourage you to seek God’s wisdom, to seek God’s resources that are made evident by the means of accurate teaching of the scripture from a well-qualified pastor. The Psalmist writes it this way in Psalm 34, verse 4. I sought the Lord’s help, and he answered me, and he delivered me from all of my fears. Again, we go back to something that is a volitional decision. I sought the Lord’s help, volitional decision. You have a volition. You have a chooser. Inside of you, you have the ability to make a choice. God didn’t make you a little autonomous robot. He gave you free will. And here, the psalmist says, I exercised my free will to seek the Lord’s help. That’s prayer. And he answered me. That’s an answer to prayer. And he delivered me from all of my fears. In other words, no longer for me to be afraid. No reason for me to be afraid. Is that true for you? Yes, 1 John 4, 18, I just gave it to you. There’s no fear in love. Love drives out fear. So if you are afraid, if you’re fearful, then there’s a niche in your Christian life that’s not linking up. You’re not understanding what the Bible’s making available to you. It’s obvious from this verse in Psalm 34 four, I sought the Lord’s help and he answered me and he delivered me from all of my fears. That’s obvious from this verse that effective prayer is a key to any divine intervention in your life. Let me ask you a question. Why face terror alone? Why do that? Your Lord is just a short prayer away. The writer of this Psalm did not say God took away all his difficulties. but rather God delivered him from the fears that those difficulties presented. Again in Psalm 56 three, when I’m afraid, I will put my trust in you. That’s a volitional decision. There will be times when you have fear. It may be caused by any number of situations. but there’s no reason to let it control you. You have to learn how to use the faithless drill. You have to remember that Jesus Christ controls history. You have to remember that God was in business before you got here and he’ll be in business long after you’re gone. So when I’m afraid, Psalm 56, three, I will put my trust in you. Volitional decision. I sought the Lord’s help. Volitional decision. How happy is the man that finds wisdom? Volitional decision. You are a product of your volition. And if you think something is going to happen without you trying to make it happen, if you think this is going to automatically happen, whammo, you’re not gonna have any more problems, you’re wrong. Your spiritual life must be priority number one. What these verses are telling you is if your spiritual life is priority number one, then you will have insight, you will have discernment, you will be delivered, You will have no reason to be afraid because you will be comforted, Psalm 23, the shepherd’s psalm. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of even death, death’s shadowed valley, I will fear no evil. There’s that word again, fear. Why not? Because you are with me and your rod and your staff, they comfort me. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The shadow of death is an opportunity for you to glorify God by your response. So this divine provision is a wonderful thing. These provisions are given and they are spiritual resources. Listen to what Paul the Apostle said about these spiritual resources in Romans 8, 38 and 39. He said, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life, neither death nor life nor any other situation, not death nor life nor angel nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come, height, depth, no other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God. What a wonderful statement that is. I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There’s the deliverance from fear. This is the confidence that we must express in the unfailing love of God. And this confidence doesn’t come overnight. You have to remember that. This confidence that I’m speaking to you of is the result of using the faith rest drill in every situation that you face, both in death and in life. Do you know the faith rest drill? Have you learned how to use it? That’s our problem-solving device number three. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please go to my website and please order the book Christian Problem Solving. And there we will give you a complete understanding of what the faith rest drill is. And my pastor taught me this years and years and years ago. There are over 7,000 promises in the Bible and they’re for you. There’s money in the bank for you and you can cash them in and use them and there’s no reason for you to ever be afraid. Remember that. So what did the verse say? I am persuaded, I’m confident that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, Nothing can separate me from what? The love of God, which is exhibited in Jesus Christ our Lord. That’s the confidence we must express in the unfading love of God. And that’s why I said it doesn’t come overnight. You have to learn how to use the faithless drill in every situation that you faith. Both present difficulties, angels, fallen principalities, rulers, that’s what he’s talking about. What’s he talking about? Present difficulties, he said, from angels, that’s what? That’s fallen angels. I’m persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels, fallen angels, nor principalities, that’s the rulers of this world, maybe even political rulers, nor powers, the verse says, forces stronger than you, like the police or the military, nor things present, nor things in the future, nor height, nor depth, there’s no place for you or me that God’s love and God’s protection cannot extend coverage to us. What a wonderful confidence that is. So let’s go over some principles on fear. And we kind of get these principles in our mind and understand them, okay? Fear is representative emotional sin. Therefore, fear is negative in the spiritual life of the church. If you’re afraid, you are out of fellowship. You’re in sin. Two, the fear of virus in your soul represents emotional arrogance and distraction to your spiritual life. Three, the more things you surrender to fear, the more things you’re going to fear. Four, fear as an emotional sin is both irrational and irresponsible, and it results in garbage in your subconsciousness and distraction from the spiritual life that you should be living. Five, fear is a key that unlocks many doors, starting with the door of arrogance. You cannot be afraid without putting on an abnormal emphasis on yourself, and that’s arrogance. six people who live by fear are intimidated by life for the believer who lives in a state of fear that fear will increase like a disease as the cancer fear increases that individual becomes intimidated by even living life seven the fear of death will never prevent you from dying but it will prevent you from living so psalm 56 3 and 4 what time i’m afraid i will put my trust in you in god whose word i praise in god i have put my trust i shall not be afraid of what man can do to me underline that in your bible psalm 56 3 and 4 i will put my trust in you if i’m afraid i praise your word i put my trust in you i’ll never be afraid of what any man can do to me Why? Because fear can be used two ways in the Bible. First of all, the fear, the Bible can talk about fear as a word of respect or reverence. Did you know that? That’s not the fear I’m talking about. I’m talking about the other kind of fear. But in 1 Peter 2, 17, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. Now that’s not a sin to respect or reverence God. In Deuteronomy 17, 19, and it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of the law and these statues. In Psalm 111 verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That means the respect of the Lord, the reverence of the Lord. That’s the wisest thing you could ever do. A good understanding, what? As a good understanding have all of those who do his commandments and his praise endures forever. So fear used as reference is good. It’s honorable. But secondly, for the believer, fear can be failure to learn and apply the word of God to the circumstances of your life. If that happens, if you fail that way, then every time fear comes into your life, you know you are not, you are not living the Christian way of life. You know immediately you are not executing the protocol plan of God. The opposite of fear, what is it? It’s courage. Well, what’s courage? It’s the ability to thank the word of God or to thank Bible doctrine and function under pressure. as if there were no abnormal circumstances, as if there was no crisis, as if there was no pressure. What a wonderful way to live. Adversity is inevitable. Fear is optional. So courage is thinking doctrine and functioning under pressure as if nothing was abnormal. Courage is claiming promises in the adversity using the 10 problem-solving devices. and functioning under the privacy of your royal priesthood. To thank the Word of God, to apply the Word of God, to metabolize the Word of God within your own intellect. But if you’re not being fed by a qualified pastor, if you’re not being fed the Word of God, you’re never going to grow, never going to come to the place where you can overcome these difficulties. Because fear and emotion are inseparable. You cannot have one without the other. And courage is simply your ability to think under pressure. Cowardice is the dominance of emotion under pressure. I remember a story about a sign on the door of an English pub during the Battle of Britain during World War II. And here’s what the sign said. Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and said, no one’s home. Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered and said, no one’s home. Isaiah 54, 17 is a verse I’d like to give you this morning before we close out. You can claim this verse in your life. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, saith the Lord. Wow, what a great promise. No weapon formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment will be condemned. This is your heritage from the Lord. Isaiah 41.10, Fear not, for I am with you, Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Man, what an amazing promise that is for you and I. Isn’t it amazing how God has provided for us so that we do not have to live under fear? It all starts with your relationship with God because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for you. Again, I want to go back to what I started with. If you’ve never trusted Christ in your life, you have no choice but to be afraid because there is nothing in front of you but doom and despair. But by trusting Jesus Christ, putting your faith in his finished work on the cross, you can live a new life in Christ because the Bible says if any man’s in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things are passed away and all things become new. And you can begin to live with the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Bible tells you, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. So there is a better way for you to live. It’s called the Christian life. It’s a life not without adversity. It’s a life not without testing and trials, but it is a life without fear. It is a life that has great confidence and great extreme courage because of what God the Father does for you. Imagine that. God loves you. He loves you in eternity past. He provided a savior for you, a way for you to escape the lake of fire. because he wanted you to have experience with him in eternity. That’s how much he loves you, that he sacrificed his own son for you. If you’ve never trusted Christ, can I encourage you to pray with me this morning? Would you be willing to pray and ask God to save you? It happened to me. It’s what I did. I simply said a short prayer, much like this. Heavenly Father, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died for me. I’m willing to accept him as my Savior today. Why don’t you start praying that prayer? Heavenly Father, I know I’m a sinner. I believe Christ died for me. I’m willing to accept him as my Savior today. If you pray that prayer, that is the first step in your life in becoming that new individual, that new person. And you can have confidence that God heard your prayer. He is not a liar, and he has given you eternal life based on what Christ did for you. I hope you’ll let me know if you prayed with me. We’d love to send you a book called Crash Course in Christianity. And I hope you’ll come back next week with me, same time, same place, same channel. 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 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.
