Join Rick Hughes in this compelling episode of The Flatline as he delves into the critical role of the family in God’s divine plan. Explore how national stability ties directly to the family unit, emphasizing the need for effective parenting and respect for authority among children. This episode continues a thought-provoking series using the acronym F-A-M-I-L-Y, dissecting spiritual responsibilities and the integral role of fathers, mothers, and authority in shaping a stable nation.
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. For the next few minutes, please stick around. 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education, and no manipulation. That’s right. No con games here. We’re not trying to sell you anything, not trying to solicit money. We just want to give you some information, information that we pray that will help you verify and identify God’s plan for your life. If you’re able to do that, then my prayer is you will orient and adjust to the plan. That’s my prayer. So that’s why we do this, the Flatline Radio Show, F-L-O-T, Forward Line of Troops. It stands for those 10 unique problem-solving devices taught in the Word of God and taught to me by my very own pastor years ago. And when you learn those 10 problem-solving devices and use them, then you can definitely stop the outside source of adversity before it ever becomes the inside source of stress. Today we’re studying lesson 1004, that’s 1,004 Sundays on the radio across America. What a great privilege it’s been for my team and me to bring you these radio shows and to watch how the Lord has provided every need that we have to make this possible. We started a series four Sundays ago on the family, the family. And I want to remind you what we’re doing and we’ll go into that today because we have something interesting to look at dealing with the family. Don’t forget we’re hitting a special series on the family. Remember this, the family is the third great divine institution of God’s plan for the nation. The family is the framework for the perpetuation and safeguarding of all future generations in the nation. And the parents are charged with evangelizing their children, that’s what you have to do, as well as teach your children respect for authority and try to break those arrogant trends they may have and give them good norms and standards, such as respect for privacy, property, good manners, patriotism, et cetera. The family is truly the most unique thing in this divine institution. That’s what holds this nation together. National stability in America always rests with a family unit. And broken families will equal always a broken nation. So remember, in this series, we’re taking each letter of the word family, F-A-M-I-L-Y, and looking at certain doctrines that correspond with the individual letters in the word family. For example, Elf, we studied the word fathers. And it’s clear from scripture that being a father is an honored position. With that honor comes tremendous responsibility, and unfortunately, client nation America, we are seeing a lack of fathers stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for their children. It’s also clear that many men who have children are way too young to meet that responsibility, since many of these are still children themselves. So we did a whole series on fathers, and I hope you’ll listen to that. If you didn’t, let us know. We’ll get it to you. And then we went into the A, F, A, family, F, A, and we studied authority. Because without authority orientation, it’s impossible for anyone to learn anything. Because there must be humility for teachability to take place. In the family, the parents have the legitimate authority and must enforce the rules and guidelines for the children. And children must understand privacy, respect for property, and the temporal realm of life. So we studied the F for fathers, the A for authority, and then we looked at the word M for mothers. I believe that unless the ladies of this nation, the daughters and the wives, pay attention to the word of God, then we won’t have a country much longer. And I believe you mothers are the backbone to the country. So it’s your faith, your encouragement, your stability that stabilizes the man and stabilizes the marriage and gives stability to the home. Now today we’re going to take a look at the letter L for family, F-A-M-I-L-Y. We’re going to look at that word L, and I’d like to use this this way. Excuse me, the word I, that’s what I’m trying to say. It kind of looks like an L on the notes, but it’s I. And we’re dealing with inspiration and intercession. Inspiration and intercession. And we’re talking about intercessory prayer. Have you ever heard that term before? Intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer on the part of the family members is a wonderful, wonderful privilege. For example, intercessory prayer is a service to others for whom you pray, providing you do it effectively. I mean, you can pray and not even get answers. You can do a right thing in a wrong way. Don’t forget that. Because the right thing done in a wrong way is always still wrong. And prayer can be done in a right way or a wrong way. You can pray until you’re blue in the face, but if you’re not doing it in the right way, you’re not going to have any results. So prayer must be done effectively. And this ministry of prayer is an invisible ministry. People won’t see it. But all intercessory prayer must be impersonal. It’s not personal. You’re not dealing with individuals that you love every time. Sometimes you have to deal with people you don’t like. Sometimes you don’t like your spouse. Sometimes you get angry with your children. And you can still pray in an impersonal, using impersonal love based on your integrity, maybe not theirs, but it’s always on your integrity. So all intercessory prayer must be based on your virtue, your integrity as you pray for others. The great power in this intercessory prayer I’m talking about is what we call impersonal love. Remember that prayer does not give you any momentum in your life. It’s not a problem-solving device. It’s not a cure-all for everything. I mean, I hear it every day. Our thoughts and our prayers go with you, and that’s just a waste of words because they don’t even know how to pray most of the time. And you can pray all you want to if you don’t do it in the right way. As I told you, it’s not going to be answered. So it doesn’t give you momentum in your spiritual life. It’s not a cure-all to become a spiritually mature person just because you pray a couple times a day. But you should be praying for unbelievers. That’s legitimate. And that’s part of your dynamics and your intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer. So for example, if you have unbelieving siblings, unbelieving parents, then in the family, you have the responsibility to pray for them And what are you praying? Are you praying for them to be saved? Well, God can’t overstep their volition if they don’t want to. But here’s what you pray for. You pray that they will recognize their lost condition, and you pray that they will believe in Christ while there’s still time to come. But somehow or another, they have to recognize their loss before they want to be saved. If they don’t see that first, then they’ll never accept Christ as their Savior. So if you have unbelieving family members, unbelieving siblings, unbelieving parents, pray for them, intercede for them, and ask God to let them see their self as they really are. This is where inspiration comes in now, intercessory and inspiration. What do I mean by that? I’m talking about your consistent spiritual growth and your relaxed mental attitude under intense circumstances can inspire individuals that see you and watch you and inspire them to, in fact, accept Christ. That’s what you want. Your spiritual insight, your spiritual discernment can inspire other people as they observe how you handle adversity in your life because a spiritually mature believer who faces death unafraid, That’s a powerful testimony to the unbelieving family members who’s watching. And it happens daily, daily. A mature believer, when it’s time for them to go home to the home office and meet the Lord, they’re not afraid. They’re not scared to death. They have great peace and look forward to where they’re headed. And an unbeliever sees this and it’s an inspiration to them. How do they do this? Why are they not worried? I remember one time I’ve told the story on this show, but An old friend of mine who passed away, a nurse came and told her mother, came and told her daughter, said, your mom is in such pain, she’s moaning. I don’t know what to do to help her. And the daughter went in and she listened and she said, my mother is not moaning, she’s singing. And she was because she was looking excitedly forward to meeting her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So that’s how you inspire people. As you even face death, when you cross the bridge into the high ground of spiritual maturity, and pass that evidence testing, and that’s what it is. When you get to be a certain age, this is when you go through evidence testing, especially as you get older and face adversity. Are you going to fail? Are you going to quit? Are you going to wimp out? Are you going to trust the Lord to handle your situations for you? This is like going to the witness stand and Satan gets to cross-examine you like he did Job. And what about you? Your evidence testing at an uncurable illness can inspire other people who are watching you. Inspire them to do what? To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be the one thing they need to see. But remember this, and I tell you one more time, prayer is not a problem-solving device for you in suffering. It’s actually a weapon for the strong to use on behalf of other people who are suffering. And you can use it in your life as well to claim the promises of God. As a royal priest, which you are, but you can’t intercede for other people. So please, don’t ever cease praying for your lost family members, even up to the last day you have on this planet. And don’t forget, God, the Holy Spirit, intercedes for us as a substitute when we are motivated to pray, when we try to pray, but sometimes we don’t even know what to pray. He intercedes for us. Listen to Romans 8, 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now listen to verse 27 carefully in Romans 8. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So the Holy Spirit is praying for you, interceding for you. The Holy Spirit’s ministry of prayer for you cannot be squinched or grieved. Even if you’re out of fellowship, even if you’re in sin, he’s praying for you to rebound, to recover, to get back in fellowship. He’s before the throne of God lifting you up, and he continues to make intercession for you when you’re out of fellowship. He does this for you regardless of your volition. Now, your prayers might not be valid if you’re trying to pray with unconfessed sin in your life, but the prayers of the Holy Spirit to the throne room of God are always valid and always heard by the Father. But in regards to your prayers, Psalm 66, 18 says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And there’s your warning right there. If you try to pray and you have unconfessed sin in your life, it’s not going to be heard. But let’s go back to intercessory prayer, praying for other people. Your prayer for other people becomes your ministry. But I want to remind you that long prayers, I’ve been around a few people who want to pray. They like to hear themselves pray and they want to pray a long prayer. Maybe in your church you have a deacon like that or some member and the pastor calls on him to pray and off he goes. People are starting to open one eye and look around and see what time it is. How long has this guy been praying? Long prayer should be reserved for private prayer, private intercession, private petition. Matthew 6, 6 says, when you pray, go into your private room, and once you shut the door, you pray to your Father who’s with you in secret, and pray to your Father who sees in secret, and he’ll provide for you. So you don’t have to parade around in front of everybody and show them how great a prayer warrior you are and pray in 15, 20-minute long prayers. In Matthew 26, 36, I want to show you an example of our Lord’s request not being answered and the disciples failing to do their job with intercessory prayer. This is Matthew 26. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to the disciples, I’m going to kind of paraphrase it. All right, man, sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. That’s James and John. That’s three tough guys, probably three of the toughest disciples because the sons of Zebedee were called sons of thunder. So he took these three with him and went off to the side, left the other disciples behind, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. And he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me. And he went a little bit further so he could have some privacy. And he fell on his face and he prayed saying, oh my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. By the way, what was in the cup? My sin and your sin. He drank every drop of our sins into his own body on the cross. So he said, if it’s possible, and obviously it’s not possible because this was the will of God for him, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, that’s what he said, Not as I will, but as you will. There he is submitting to the Father’s divine will. It’s not his volition. You know, the Lord looked at that cross. It didn’t exactly look like a great place to hang out. But he said, nevertheless, if this is your will, I’m willing to do it. So what did he do? He left James and John and Peter back behind to do a little praying for him, help him pray. Verse 40, then he came to the disciples and found them asleep. Asleep. And he said to Peter, what? Could you not stay awake with me for one hour? Watch and pray. There it is. Watch and pray. Verse 41, Matthew 26. Lest you enter into temptation yourself, because the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And Peter did enter into temptation. When they came to arrest him, he pulled out a sword and tried to cut a guy’s head off, and he missed, cut his ear off instead. So after he gave him some admonition and went back to pray again a second time, he went away and he prayed saying, oh, Father, if this cup cannot pass from me unless I drink it, then your will be done. And he came and found them, what? Asleep, asleep again because their eyes were heavy. And he left them and he went away and he prayed a third time. I can just see him coming back and say, oh, my word. These guys can’t stay awake 10 minutes. And he went and prayed again the third time. Then he came back to his disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping? Are you still resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up. Let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. And that means that Judas had brought the Romans there, not necessarily the Romans, but the the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the temple guard had come to arrest him. So what about you? This is my question I want to ask you. Have you been lured to sleep spiritually? Have you? Have you been lured to sleep spiritually? Do you let the problems of life take precedence over the responsibility you have to watch and pray? For example, have you interceded for your children today? Or what about your leaders? Have you prayed for your leaders? In 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 4, here’s what Paul wrote. Therefore, I exhort, first of all, that supplication, prayer, intercession, that’s what we’re talking about, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires that all men be saved and all men come to the knowledge of the truth. So this is where impersonal love comes in. What I mean by that, well, you might not like your leaders. You might not like the president. You might not like the vice president. You might not like your senator, your congressman. What should you pray for them? The Bible tells you to pray for them. I exhort, first of all, supplication, prayer intercession, giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all in authority. That’s who we’re talking about. If I’m supposed to pray for people I don’t like, what should I pray? Well, verse two told me what to pray. I’ll read it to you again. Pray that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. That word reverence is the Greek word semnotes, semnotes. What does semnotes mean? It’s the characteristics of a person or a thing which entitles to reverence or respect. And we will more than likely find disrespect for Christians in the not too distant future. So Paul is saying when you pray for your leaders, pray that they will let you live a quiet and peaceable life and respect you and not try to take revenge on you. Get ready because it’s coming. There’s coming a time soon when Christians are going to be in the revenge motivation. I think already a lot of people hate Christians. So listen to this. There may be a few other things you might want to pray when you’re mad, when you’re out of fellowship. But remember this, if you got to let God do the judging, not you. In Romans 12, 19, beloved, do not avenge yourself, but rather get placed to wrath for it is written, vengeance is mine and I will repay, says the Lord. So it’s not your job to get placed to wrath. 24 hours a day, the Supreme Court of Heaven is open. The Lord Jesus Christ controls history. He can handle what’s going on. But you just pray to live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. So listen to the fantastic promises of God concerning your prayer requests. Listen carefully. Here’s a promise, John 15, 7. If you abide in me… and my words abide in you. You can ask what you desire, and here it is, listen, it shall be done for you. The word abide is a Greek word pronounced meno, M-E-N-O, meno. And it means not to depart or to remain as one. So this verse is conditional, meaning you have the potential. If you stay in fellowship with the Lord, And if you live by the mandates of God’s word, you can freely ask for things in both personal petitions and intercessory prayer, and they will be granted. However, the next verse is the key to God answering your prayers. I’m going to say that again. If you stay in fellowship with the Lord, if you live by his mandates, you can freely ask for things both in personal petition, that’s praying for your own self, and in intercessory prayers, praying for others, and they will be granted. But the next verse is the key, John 5, 14, and 15. This is the confidence that we have in him if we ask anything according to his will. And that’s the key to it, according to his will. Now, you may want to win the lottery, so you pray, okay, Lord, help me win the lottery. I want to win the million-dollar lottery. You’re not ever going to win the lottery like that. I promise you, if you won the lottery today, you’d be gone tomorrow. Most people, that’s the way they are. They won’t, oh Lord, help me win the lottery. Not gonna happen, forget that. According to his will, what is his will? Well, we know what his will is, that all men come to repentance. He’s not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He’s wanting people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if we’re praying in his will, we’re praying for our family members, for my brother, for my sister, for my mother, for my father, for my aunt, for my uncle. I’m interceding that they would know they’re lost and they would see their lost condition and they would turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and accept him as Savior. Would he hear that? Yes. And we know that if he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we’ve asked of him. 1 John 5, 14 and 15. So don’t ask for anything ridiculous. Don’t ask for something that would override a person’s volition. For example, you can’t, you know, God, please save Joe, my friend Joe. Save him, God. Now, God’s not going to step in and save Joe until Joe’s ready to be saved. He’s not going to override Joe’s volition. Joe has to make a decision. Do I want to believe in Christ? So it’s much better to ask God to reveal your friend’s condition to him so he will see that he’s lost. and understand what he’s facing. So prayer to God is the privilege of every born again child of the Father. But there are conditions for that prayer to be met in the protocol plan of God. Though I mean, as we told you earlier today, you can pray and your prayers sometimes are not gonna be answered because you’re doing the right thing, but you’re doing it in the wrong way. So first condition, you must be in fellowship for the prayer to be effective. By that I mean you’ve got to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Because Psalm 66, 18 says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, then the Lord will not hear me. And second, you must not ask for the wrong reason. James 4, 3 said you ask and don’t receive. Why? Because you ask amiss. You ask so you could spend it on your own pleasure. So you’re not asking for what’s the will of God. And finally, a condition we must be believing when we ask him. If we believe he’ll answer Matthew 21 22 and whatever things you ask in prayer, believing you will receive. So to conclude this study, I ask you again, are you praying for your children? Parents? Are you sleeping? Are you praying for your siblings, brothers and sisters? Are you praying for your aunts and uncles and your parents? Are you praying for your lost family members? You can intercede for them and pray for them. Are you praying for your nation? And are you praying for your leaders? Wake up. Jesus told the disciples, wake up, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. These are tough times in America. And you better wake up and understand your responsibility in the family is to intercede for those in your family and to inspire them by means of your own personal growth in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me remind you as we wrap this up today, we’re going to be making some changes after the first of the year. We’re dropping a few radio stations and we’re adding a few radio stations. What we do is we try to keep up with where we’re being heard and where the responses are. So if you wind up not hearing our show, you might need to contact us and let us know. It’s possible your station could be dropped. We don’t want to drop anything. We’d like to add stations, but financially, sometimes it’s impossible because these are not free. We have to purchase the airtime. But thankfully, the Lord has always graciously given us every dime to pay for every bill we have without us asking, without us selling, without us begging for money. So God is very faithful. God is very gracious to do that for us. So pray for us as we make these changes, as we decide what cities to keep pressing on and what cities to drop. And we will add new cities and new cities. And hopefully your city will still be on the agenda because I enjoy being in every town. But if we’re not hearing from people, then there’s no sense to continue to broadcast in that city. Okay? Well, I sure thank you for listening with me today. Thank you for being part of our radio show for all these years.
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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.
