Soar with Eagles
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 589 aired on December 11, 2016
Good morning and welcome to the FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes I’d like to ask you to stay with me. As always, it will be a few minutes of motivation,
inspiration, education, and we do this without any type of manipulation. That’s because we’re not
trying to con anybody, we’re not trying to sell you something, we’re not trying to hustle you,
we’re just trying to give you some accurate information. Information that will help you verify as
well as identify the plan of God for your life. If you’re able to do this, then my prayer is you will
orient and adjust to this plan. This show is about giving you accurate information, not human
speculation, accurate information from the canon of Scripture called the Bible. It is a show about
the Bible. You know this show is predicated on building a main line of resistance in your soul, a
FLOT line. F.L.O.T. stands for forward line of troops. This basically is made up of 10 unique
problem-solving devices that we teach on this show. This is not something that we discovered.
This is age old Biblical truth taught by my pastor many years ago. When we learn what’s on our
FLOT line, when we understand the problem-solving devices given to us in the Word of God,
then it is possible, if we will use them, that we can stop the outside sources of adversity before
they ever become the inside sources of stress. Because adversity is always inevitable but stress is
always optional. We never have to be stressed out. In fact we live a supernatural life. The
Christian life is a supernatural life, it’s an unusual life. We have the filling of the Holy Spirit
which gives us the power to overcome the flesh that tempts us. We have the Word of God which
gives us insight into the strategy of the devil and what he does. Ephesians 6 talks about this,
“Put
on the armor of God so that we can stand against the strategy of the devil,”
and that’s a military
metaphor just like the one we’re using. The FLOT line is a military metaphor. We have these
invisible assets of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. You may have, I pray you have, I hope
you have a well-qualified pastor that teaches you the Bible more than thirty minutes a week. I
mean someone who is teaching you God’s Word so that you can grow rapidly, not slowly. People
can grow at different rates, I understand that, just like cars go at different speeds. But I’m looking
for those people who want to grow quickly, people who want to get to the high ground of
spiritual maturity and glorify God to the maximum. The only way you can do this is to
effectively re-present Jesus Christ to your generation. Along the way there are going to be
difficulties and adversities and setbacks and so I want you to learn how to deal with these things.
There’s a great passage of Scripture that does this. It encourages us in our daily life and it
supports us personally as well as spiritually. It gives us our options in life. So what we’re looking
for, what I’m looking for is one of you out there. I don’t know, you may be in California in
Redding or Grass Valley. You may be in Cheyenne, Wyoming. You may be in Mississippi. You
may be in Maryland. You may be in a lot of different places where we broadcast this radio show,
San Antonio, maybe you’re in Houston, maybe you’re in New York, but you are the person I’m
looking for. You’re the one that’s going to be the leader, you’re going to lead the way. When the
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going gets tough, you’re the one that’s going to get going. The tough get going and by this I mean
you’re going to stick with God’s problem-solving devices. You’re going to learn God’s Word.
You’re going to set the example for your family and for your friends of what it means to be a
mature believer. Don’t worry, you’re going to be tested and you may get weary. I mean this
happens a lot. We get tested and we get weary. One of the key passages to understand is Isaiah
40:28-31. If you’re a parent, if you’re a principal, if you’re a politician, these are things you need
to know. In this passage, I’ll read it to you and then explain it. I’ll show you how you can get
abnormal strength you did not know you had. Isaiah 40:28 says,
“Do you not know or have you
not heard the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become
weary or tired? His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary and to him who
lacks might, He increases power.”
Listen to Isaiah 40:30,
“Though youths grow weary and tired
and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet
[and here it comes now, listen]
those who wait for
the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles and they will fly,
they will run and not get tired and they will walk and not be weary.”
That’s you, you can do
this.
The background of this passage is phenomenal. It’s a background I want you to understand
and see and hear. These Jews that we’re talking about here had been taken captive by the
Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar who invaded Jerusalem. Many Jews were taken into captivity.
Then Persia came along and defeated the Babylonians and freed these Jews. Isaiah writes to
encourage those Jews who leave Babylon to go back to Judea, return to their homeland. You can
read about this in the book of Ezra. They went back and rebuilt the temple and rebuilt the temple
wall. Nehemiah talked about them rebuilding the military. So this is a timeless truth for people
that struggle with adversity in their daily life and in their walk because these folks were coming
out of slavery and going back to reestablish their land. They were struggling. Isaiah said in Isaiah
40:28, “
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.”
Obviously these folks are going to be tired. They were going to be weary. They were going to
have a tremendous task in front of them in rebuilding their nation. This verb,
“Do you not
know,”
the Hebrew word
yada
means knowledge. Knowledge – something that you’ve learned,
information that you’ve perceived or a principle that you’ve recognized. This is critical.
In order
for you to live an effective Christian life,
to endure the adversity that you will face, you
must learn. You must perceive information and recognize principles found in the Word of
God.
You cannot be a mature believer without learning something. One of the most discouraging
things that I can think of are believers who’ve been saved for many years, 10, 20, 30 years
they’ve been Christians and they don’t know much of anything. They haven’t learned much. You
know, the disciples were on a crash course with the Lord Jesus Christ. They had to learn a lot in
three years. I mean, He fed them, He taught them, He crammed it down their throats so they
would understand. “I’m leaving and you must carry on and you’re going to have a cross to carry
like I did. You better learn what you’re going to have to do.” The Lord Jesus Christ was
constantly teaching these disciples. I want to tell you, they were slow to learn just like me, slow
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to learn. You must learn, the Bible clearly says,
“Study to show yourself approved unto God a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”
Most people when
they hear “study,” they assume, “Well, if I do a ten minute devotion every morning when I get up
and I have my prayer time, then I’m fulfilling my duty to study.” I disagree. I think when the
Bible says,
“Grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,”
when
the Lord says,
“Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,”
I think it takes more than ten minutes
a day. That’s why I encourage you to get under the ministry of a well qualified pastor and if you
don’t have one I can surely recommend one that will give you tapes, DVDs, so that you can grow
spiritually and study in the privacy of your own home. My own pastor teaches the Bible four
hours every week, four hours of Bible study. We’re doing a study in the life of Christ at my
church and we are now over 900 hours into the life of Christ. There’s a lot to learn. Our Christian
life on this earth is spent learning, learning how to execute God’s plan, learning what’s in the
future, figuring out our personal sense of destiny, what is the perfect will of God, learning how to
replicate the life of Christ, and you don’t do this overnight. You must learn. You must have
knowledge. If you want to avoid being discouraged, if you want to avoid becoming weary, you
must learn. Proverbs 1:22 says this as sort of a warning,
“How long you simple ones will you
love simplicity? Because scorners
[that’s those who have contempt or mock God]
they delight in
their scorning and a fool hates knowledge. How long will you simple ones love simplicity?”
I
hate to be the one to break it to you but learning God’s Word is not a simple thing. It’s not ten
minutes a day. If you’re looking for some pastor to be simple, two points and a poem, and send
you to the golf course or send you to the restaurant for lunch, you’re never going to grow up.
You’re just going to be a Christian caricature. You’re not going to replicate the life of Christ.
You’re not even willing to grow. You are what I call a casual Christian, a nod to God on Sunday
and then go your way the rest of the week. Yeah, you’ll be in heaven. Yes, you will have eternal
life. Yes, you did believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior but you had priority number one, self.
You were not interested in reproducing Christ to your generation because you wouldn’t take the
time to learn God’s Word. Isaiah 40:28 tells us,
“God’s understanding is inscrutable.”
This
means it’s impossible to comprehend. He is omnipotent, He is omniscient, He is omnipresent.
Omniscient means He knows everything. Omnipotent means He’s all powerful. Omnipresent
means He’s always with us. Here are some principles we learn from Isaiah 40:28. God never
becomes weary. He always meets the needs of His people. Listen to Psalm 21:3,
“He will not
allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.”
I don’t know what you’re
going through in your life or what adversity you may be facing but God is aware, He
knows.
You’re not going through anything that no one else has gone through according to 1
Corinthians 10:13. He can secure you and keep you and He is not asleep on the job. When our
Lord Jesus Christ went to the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He was arrested, the
disciples slept on the job while He prayed and He came and said,
“Can you not stay awake an
hour or two?”
They slept on the job. One of the most disgusting things in the world is for you to
go to church and nod off and fall asleep while the Word of God is being taught. This is the
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ultimate in disrespect. I can’t believe you would even consider taking a nap while the Word of
God is taught. Often if you look around in church you’ll see people like this, nodding off, can’t
pay attention and then when the bottom falls out of their life, they want God to swoop in and
make it all right. They’re not willing to spend the time learning God’s problem-solving devices.
God does not become weary.
God gives strength to the ones who are exhausted. This strength
comes in the form of two power options: the filling of the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5:18, and
the Word of God in your soul. Hebrews 4:12,
“And to those who have no power, He increases
their strength.”
Listen to Isaiah 40:29,
“He gives strength to the weary.”
That’s me, I’ve been
traveling a lot and I’m weary. This word strength is a noun from the Hebrew word
kaoh
and it
means He gives might or He gives ability or He gives power. Listen as I read to you Jeremiah
9:23-24,
“Thus saith the Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the rich man
boast of his riches, let not the mighty man boast of his mind. If you want to boast in something,
boast in this, that you understand Me and you know Me.”
There’s a big difference between
knowing God and understanding God. I have no doubt you know God this morning. You have
accepted Christ as your Savior, but I’m not sure you understand the God you know. Do you
understand His perfect righteousness and His perfect justice? Do you understand the essence of
God? His sovereignty and His righteousness, His justice, His love, His eternal life, His
immutability, His veracity, His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, there is a lot to
understand. If you don’t understand these things about the God you love, how can you serve
Him? How can you use the assets He gave you? The Bible says in 1 John 5:1,
“If we love Him
we will obey Him.”
Do you even know what you’re suppose to do or not do? Not what people tell
you, some of the goofy stuff they come up with, “Don’t drink soda pops. Don’t eat popcorn. Stay
away from candy,” as if these are sins. You know I’m being a little ridiculous and facetious, but
I’m making you understand the point. Many, many, churches will put you in chains and tell you,
“You can’t do this and you can’t do that and be a good Christian,” when it’s not even in the Bible.
Yet people love to run your life. People love to “calf rope” you and make you do things that are
not even in the Bible. If you’re interested in learning what’s in the Bible then you better get a
well-qualified pastor that won’t teach you legalism, that will give you the grace assets of the
Christian life. Stick around here, you’ll hear it all the time. Contact me, I’ll tell you how to find
some of these pastors that are squared away guys that will give you the information and not
charge you one dime. They’ll send you anything they’ve got free of charge. The Bible clearly
says,
“He gives strength to the weary,”
and then it says,
“To those who have no might. He
increases their strength,”
Isaiah 40:29.
This means the one who lacks ability, the one who lacks
the strength to carry out, the one who doesn’t have the substance to sustain himself, He will
actually give you the power. He will make you do what you didn’t think you could do. I
remember playing football in college and my college football coach was Paul Bear Bryant, the
famous Bear Bryant of Alabama. He got men to do what they didn’t think they could do. He
would take you to the point of exhaustion and then challenge you to keep going. Those of you
that have served in the military, you understand what the drill instructor did. He got you to do
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things you didn’t think you could do. This is what God does. He gives you the strength to carry
on even when you don’t have the substance to sustain yourself.
This is the supernatural ability
of the Christian life through the filling of the Holy Spirit and the dynamics of the Word of
God in your soul.
This noun,
“He increases your strength,”
means He gives you an abundance
and it all comes by means of the faith-rest drill, problem-solving device number three, standing
on the promises of God. The young men that fled Babylon in verse 30 of this passage were going
to grow weary, they were going to stumble badly when they went back to their land. But the
Bible says,
“Those who wait on the Lord,”
and here’s the key, which means to look to the Lord,
or hope for the Lord, or expect the Lord, this requires patience.
If you want God to help you,
you’re going to have to have some patience because it’s all about God’s timing, not your timing.
If there’s anything that’ll get you in trouble, it’s lack of patience. It is you jumping the gun. It is
you being, oh shall we say, first out of the gate. You must wait on the Lord and this requires
faith. Remember when the Jews had come out of Egypt and they were running for their lives
away from the Pharaoh, they came up to the Red Sea? The Red Sea was in front of them and the
Pharaoh was behind them with his armies and it looked like they were going to die, looked like
they were trapped. Moses said,
“Stand still and watch what God is about to do.”
In order for
you to see the power of God, you must stand still sometimes, stand still on His promises.
“No weapon that is formed against you shall ever hurt you,”
Isaiah 54:17. This requires faith
and the faith-rest drill.
There are over 7,000 promises in the Bible, all for you. They’re yours if
you’ll use them, if you’ll trust Him. This is the power that God’s Word gives you, the
sustainability that God’s Word gives you if you will be patient, if you will learn God’s Word.
Listen to Romans 10:17,
“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
You
cannot have faith if you don’t learn God’s Word.
It’s not like a train trying to go over a
mountain saying, “I think I can. I think I can. I think I can,” that’s not faith. Faith is the actuality
of what you believe. It’s not you assuming unassigned responsibilities. It’s you being patient,
waiting on the Lord, staying filled with the Holy Spirit, growing in grace, and letting God do the
work. “If you will wait on the Lord you will gain new strength,” Isaiah 40:31.
You will be
refreshed. You will be energized. I like to call it spiritual Red Bull. That’s one of those energy
drinks on the market today that a lot of people drink to get a burst of energy. Well God can give
you the spiritual Red Bull. It’s not just a little burst of energy, it’s a life of energy, a new strength.
I can assure you in my life in the many years that I’ve traveled back and forth across the
southeastern part of the United States and out into the western part of this great country, there
have been many, many times I’ve grown weary and tired, back and forth, driving, traveling and
yet God has always energized me, always refreshed me when I stand to teach His Word.
Isaiah
40:31 says,
“You will mount up with wings like eagles.”
That’s wonderful. I see some eagles
when I’m out fishing and they are beautiful creatures. I love to watch them. They soar high above
me. They can see much more than I can see. Their eyes are very, very sharp and they soar on the
currents of air that keep them aloft. Think about this for your life. How would you like to be able
to soar above all the problems that you face and survey the situation with divine viewpoint, not
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human viewpoint, looking at it from high above and seeing God’s complete and total plan? See,
this is something incredible. Once you get up above and you see the whole plan laid out, you see
where you’re going, not where you are. You see where you’re going and if you have the faith to
trust God, you’ll get there.
“Mounting up with wings like eagles.”
What a great promise that you
can soar above your problems and look at the big picture, not just what’s happening now because
divine solutions are the only solutions and human solutions are no solutions.
“You will run and
not get tired,”
which means you’re running in a race. Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us,
“Therefore, since
we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and
the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and the perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that
was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.”
Yes, He ran a race and He did not
get weary and you can do the same thing. There is a great cloud of witnesses watching you and
they’re called angels. The angelic beings observe you.
God is asking you to lay aside every
distraction, every encumbrance and any sin which entangles you and run the race with
endurance.
What is the race? What is that about? It’s the race to get to spiritual maturity, the race
to be able to completely replicate the life of Christ. That’s the race, it’s the race for you to
become a mature believer because this is the one thing Satan opposes, he opposes this
completely. Isaiah 40:31,
“They will run and they won’t get tired.”
This means God will give you
extended endurance.
“They will walk and not get weary.”
This means you won’t get fatigued and
you won’t faint. Like a 25 mile forced march in the military, some people faint, some people can’t
do it, they have to be picked up by the trucks and taken back to the base. But then there’s always
those few that have this supernatural ability to drive on and drive on and drive on. These sorts of
people become Special Forces, Rangers, Airborne, Marine Recon, Navy SEALs, they have this
endurance. That’s what God is looking for in you, special endurance, and He will give it to you.
He will sustain you. You will be able to live your life with endurance and not get discouraged,
not get weary, never get tired, never give up, never say, “Oh Lord, I can’t take it anymore.” You
know that’s self-pity. The ultimate arrogance in your life is self-pity. If you get full of self-pity,
you’re going to start looking at the problems instead of the solutions and you’re going to look
around and say, “I just can’t do it anymore Lord, it’s just not fair Lord, I just can’t handle it Lord.”
Remember what Jesus did,
“Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, suffered
the shame.”
It didn’t mean He was having fun but it meant He was doing exactly what God
designed Him to do. That’s what God’s plan is for you. It’ll be tough.
There’ll be days you will
fail. But if you rebound and get up and keep moving and keep growing, keep learning
God’s Word, you will replicate the life of Christ that brings God much glory. You will be a
winner, an invisible hero in God’s plan.
This is His plan for you and my desire for you, that
you will,
“Grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Thank
you for listening. Thank you for being with me today. I pray you’ll come back next week, same
time, same place. Until then, this is your host Rick Hughes.