Join Rick Hughes in this enlightening episode of The Flatline, where he dives deep into understanding the importance of making sound decisions using the ‘forward line of troops’ or problem-solving devices. Discover ten unique devices designed to bolster your spiritual growth, including the rebound technique and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Rick emphasizes the critical distinction between entertaining services and true spiritual nourishment, urging listeners to seek God’s wisdom diligently.
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 02 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m Rick Hughes, your host, and thank you for tuning in today. I appreciate the opportunity to bring this information. Remember, God gave you two ends, one you can think with, one you can sit with. Our objective is to give you enough information so that you can use the right end because bad decisions limit future options. Success in life depends on which one of those ends you use. Heads, you’ll win it, and tails, more than often, you’re going to lose it. And so the Bible is very clear, tells us in 2 Peter 3, 18, we’re to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that’s what this show’s about, looking for those of you that are hungry to grow. I’m sort of a talent scout. I’m looking for positive volition. I’m looking for people that want to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope you’re that person. I hope you’ve been listening because of that, and I hope you’ve been able to find a well-qualified pastor that can feed you and teach you God’s Word in your local area. Many of you have written to me and asked me where you can find such a person, and I’ve referred you to people that I know that offer information free of charge. And many of you have had your life completely turned around by getting into the Word and starting to grow spiritually. I can name names in various cities across the country in the 30 different cities that we broadcast in, but I won’t name any names, but it’s been wonderful to see the response in the lives of a lot of people that are really growing spiritually because of the efforts of the Holy Spirit through this show to encourage them in spiritual growth. Today, we want to keep talking about God’s Word, and I want to bring up a subject to you I think you may enjoy. And I have a car dealer friend that I used to know, and his commercial, he’d go through all this stuff on his car dealership about what he wanted to sell, what he wanted to sell, and how cheap it was, how many months he could finance it. And then he would close out by saying, would I lie to you? And of course, everybody said, certainly he’d lie to me. Well, I want you to know that God never lies. God always keeps his word. And I want to demonstrate that to you today. But as we go into the scripture and we study the word of God, you know, as we learn the formation of the flatline in your soul, Remember, this show is built on you developing a forward line of troops, a flat line, based on 10 unique problem-solving devices, beginning with the rebound technique, which is how we solve the problem of sin, 1 John 1.9. And then we talk about the second problem-solving device is the filling of the Holy Spirit. which is how we solve the problem of our genetically formed sin nature controlling our life. Ephesians 5.18 tells us to be filled with the Spirit. And then we move into the third problem-solving device, which is using the faith-rest drill, standing on the promises of God. And the fourth problem-solving device is grace orientation. From there to number five, to doctrinal orientation. To number six, personal sense of destiny. To number seven, having a personal love for God, the greatest virtue you could have. And then impersonal love for others, number eight. Number nine is sharing the happiness of God. And number 10 is occupation with Christ. These 10 unique problem solving devices we have been studying for a while. And we have to come to realize one very important principle in regards to this. Here’s the principle, please write it down and please remember this, fear, Fear will neutralize those 10 problem-solving devices. Fear will make them ineffective in your life if you let fear control you. So since you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and you started to advance in your spiritual life, The enemy, aka the devil, has a new objective now, and that is to distract you from ever advancing to spiritual maturity. His first objective was to keep you from becoming a Christian, to stop you from being saved, to stop you from hearing the gospel. He didn’t want you to hear that, but you heard it, and you believed it, and you received Christ as your savior. Now, his second objective is to distract you, defeat you spiritually. by stopping you from advancing to spiritual maturity in your life. There is such a thing as spiritual maturity. There is a spiritual life, and we start off as babies in Christ, but we must grow to be mature believers in Christ. And Hebrews 5, 11 through 16 talks about it. Hebrews 5, 11 through 16, where the writer of Hebrews said, you’ve been saved a long time now and you ought to be teaching others, but instead you’re still just babies. You need a bottle. This is sad commentary on much of Christianity today when we’ve exchanged the solid, sound, systematic teaching. of the word of god for more of an entertainment venue christianity so uh this is satan’s objective he doesn’t mind you going to church to be entertained but he doesn’t want you to go to church and be fed and let me just run this analogy by you if you go to the first grade for an hour and a half a week you’re never going to get out of the first grade and if you go to church and you get a 30-minute message on sunday morning 30-minute message on sunday night and a 30-minute message on wednesday That’s an hour and a half a week. You’re never going to grow spiritually. And most pastors, most churches will tell you, well, you need to study on your own at home. And that’s true, but that’s not how we grow spiritually. God gave the gift of qualified pastor teacher to disseminate his word. to teach it to you and we have million dollar churches that we’re not using except a few times a week unless we have some special programs going on in there. So it’s about more than reaching people for Christ. It’s about taking those people that have been saved and leading them to spiritual maturity. So remember, the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is problem solving device number two, is how we keep the world and the flesh and the devil from defeating us in our spiritual growth. And spiritual growth requires us, you, me, learning, learning and exploiting those 10 problem-solving devices to the max. You should be able to give me more than one illustration of rebound. You should be able to tell me what the filling of the Holy Spirit is and the difference between the filling of the Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit and how you quench the Spirit and how you grieve the Spirit. You should know these things because they pertain to your Christian life. You should understand how the faith rest drill operates and works and what are some of the promises that you can use. You should understand grace orientation, how we’re saved by grace, live by grace, die by grace, and even have surpassing grace in heaven. All of these things, we’ve talked about them, and we will go back and talk about them again in review. But spiritual growth requires us learning and exploiting these 10 problem-solving devices to the max. But if we allow our flesh, our flesh, our genetically formed sin nature coming from Adam, if we allow that to control us, by committing personal sin, then we will open ourselves up to letting our emotions dictate our response to circumstances beyond our control, rather than using the faithless drill and impersonal love. I’m gonna say that one more time. That was a mouthful, I know. If you allow your flesh to assume control by committing personal sin, that means you grieve the Holy Spirit, you quench the Holy Spirit, and you allow your sin nature to take over, then you open yourself up to let your emotions dictate your response. to circumstances beyond your control, rather than letting the filling of the Holy Spirit empower you to use the faith rest drill and impersonal love. Do you remember the faith rest drill? Do you remember the concepts of virtue love, the most powerful thing that we have in our life is virtue love? God said, if you love me, you will obey me and my mandates are not grievous. That’s virtue love. Virtue love is amazing. It’s appreciation for God the Father and who he is and what he did and his unfailing love for us. It’s amazing. So if we stay filled with the Holy Spirit and if we think divine viewpoint instead of being influenced by the lies and the cosmic system, The cosmic system, that’s the devil’s world. If we’re not influenced by those lies of the cosmic system, then and only then can we truly live the Christ-like life that we strive for, since the Christian life is simply us emulating the lifestyle of Christ. Remember, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, Philippians 2, 5. Remember Romans 12, 3, stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think, but think in terms of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. So we cannot allow the cosmic system to influence our thinking. We must stay filled with the Holy Spirit, and that way we think divine viewpoint. Divine viewpoint is the Bible. It’s the word of God. It’s what our Lord Jesus Christ operated on, trusted in, and taught. And as we receive it, it was recorded, written down, passed on to us in the Bible. As we receive it and learn it and use it, we have the mind of Christ. The Bible is called in 1 Corinthians 2.16, the mind of Christ. But two things that are great weaknesses for us are doubt and fear. Doubt and fear are two of our greatest weaknesses, weaknesses in the sin nature. The believer who’s filled with the Holy Spirit operating under the faithless drill does not know doubt and fear. There’s no reason for him to know it. But if you don’t stay filled with the spirit, if you operate in the cosmic system, you are subject to letting your emotions take over and they will induce doubt and fear into your life. That’s exactly what they’ll do. And this is how the enemy tries to manipulate you. This is his tactics to distract you from advancing to maturity is to get you preoccupied with yourself, to get you full of doubt or get you full of fear. So let’s look at how we can be supremely confident that our God, our Heavenly Father, would never lie to us. He always keeps his word, always. God always keeps his word. The first thing that you and I can depend upon is this one fact. You can depend on the fact that when God said he loves you, that he is not lying. He does love you. In John 3.16, God so loved the world that for this reason he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. God loved you enough to sacrifice his son for you. The Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and died not for any sin that he had done because he was the sinless lamb of God without spot and without blemish. But he took our place. That’s why the Bible says he who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we may be made the righteousness of God through him. So you can always depend on the fact that God loves you. There are two promises in that verse in John 3.16. The first one is God so loved the world, he loves you. And the second promise is this, whoever believes in his son will receive eternal life. Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. There are two wonderful promises from God and God does not lie. In John 10.28, the Lord Jesus Christ reinforced that promise with these words, In John 10, 10, 10, 28, he said, and I give unto them eternal life. I give eternal life to them and they will never perish. No one will ever snatch them out of my hand. My father who gave them to me is greater than all and no one will snatch them out of the father’s hand. and I and the Father are one. Again, notice the promise. God doesn’t lie. The promise is they will never perish. I give unto them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one has the power to snatch them out of God’s hand. And finally, I and the Father are one. They’re co-equal. So what he’s saying is this. What I say stands as if the Father said it because they’re co-equal. Now, your life will never end. You may die someday. We’re all going to die. But that doesn’t mean that it’s ending. It just means you transfer from one realm to eternity. It means you go to heaven to be face to face with your Lord. The eye have not seen, the ear have not heard. The heart has never felt the amazing things God has for you. It’s there. It’s awaiting you. Those who don’t believe in Christ, when they die, of course you know they go to hell to await the great white throne of judgment before eventually, since their names are not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, Revelation 20, They’re cast into the lake of fire. That’s the end of them. So we want you to understand the importance of this. No one who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will ever perish. They will never perish. The Bible promises this universe will perish in 2 Peter. The Bible promises it’ll melt and all be gone away and God will create a new heaven and a new earth. So please, in 1 John 2, 25, this is the promise that he promised. Here it is. This is the promise that he promised. even eternal life. This is the promise that he had promised us, even the promise of eternal life, 1 John 2, 25. So if the Lord Jesus Christ promises something to you, you’re not going to lose it. It’s not going to go away. I promise you that. And we know God doesn’t change his mind because he’s absolute veracity. He’s absolute immutability, two of his real character assets. He doesn’t lie and he doesn’t change. Even your failures will not cause God to reverse his promises. Did you know that? You got saved, you accepted Christ as your savior, and then you committed some horrible sin, right? Or maybe, maybe as you got educated at some liberal university, you ceased believing in God and all of a sudden changed your position and you now say that there is no God. But when you were young, you believed it and you trusted in Christ. What does the Bible say about that? In 2 Timothy 2.13, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. You see, once God gives to you eternal life, you’re put into the body of Christ. And if God denied you, he would have to deny himself or Jesus Christ. He’s not going to do that. So your failures does not cause God to reverse any of these promises that I gave to you. Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Very interesting. In John 6, 40, it is my father’s will that everyone who looks to the son and believes in him shall have eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. Now how, how do you know that we can depend on God to keep those words? How do we know that? Because John wrote these words and this is a great comfort to us. In 1 John 5, 11 through 13, this is the testimony. This is what we have. The testimony is this, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son, and he who has a son has life. And he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. Then listen to verse 13 of 1 John 5. These things I’ve written unto you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know, you may know that you have eternal life. It doesn’t say you hope you have it. It doesn’t say you’re trying to have it. It says you know you have it. Ido is the Greek word. Ido. You may Ido and it means to come to understand. It means to recognize, to realize that Greek word Ido. That’s what it means. Understand, recognize or realize. And it’s in the subjunctive mood in the morphology of that verb, which means it’s potential. Maybe you will understand that and maybe you won’t because it’s based on two things, such as knowledge must be obtained and not by mere intellectual activity, that’s called gnosis in the Bible, And anybody can quote the Bible and learn the Bible, but that doesn’t mean they believe the Bible and use it. So what we’re looking for is epi-gnosis, epi being full and gnosis being knowledge. So such knowledge is obtained, if you’re going to understand this, If you know this confidently, this sort of knowledge is obtained not by just mere intellectual activity, but under the filling of the Holy Spirit, after you accept Christ as your Savior, and then walking by faith. In other words, can you believe this with absolute confidence? You should. You should believe it with absolute confidence. These things I wrote unto you who believe in the name of the Son of God so you will know that you have eternal life. Don’t ever say, I want to go to heaven. Don’t ever say, I hope I go to heaven. Don’t ever say, I’m trying to go to heaven. Say, thank God I’m going to heaven because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, and I have accepted him as my Savior. If you haven’t done that, it is the most important decision you’ll ever make. And you can decide right now as you’re listening to this radio show. You can take just a moment and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can express your faith in a prayer to God the Father, and the words are not important. I mean, what I did was simply said, God, I know I’m a sinner, and I want to be saved. I want to accept Christ as my Savior. That’s all I did. But it worked because God heard my prayer. God answered my prayer, and God saved me, delivered me, and he will do the same for you. I promise you. However, Satan’s always going to cast doubt, always cast doubt on God’s veracity. I mean, that’s what he did in the garden. That’s how he seduced Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. You remember that. Genesis 3, 1 through 5, Now the serpent was more smart, more subtle, smarter than any beast in the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Yea, has God said you shall not eat of every tree in the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, Well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but that one tree… It’s in the middle of the garden. God said, don’t eat of it. Don’t even touch it lest you’ll die. And that’s not what he said. He didn’t say anything about don’t touch it. And listen to what the devil, listen to his planning doubt in her mind. And the serpent said to the woman, you will not die. For God knows the day you eat thereof of that fruit, then your eyes will be opened and you will be as God’s knowing the difference between good and evil. so he planted the doubt in her mind he appealed to her emotions and she took the forbidden fruit and shortly thereafter shows up at adam’s doorstep and says honey look what i’ve done and i’m sure adam realized oh my word what have you done woman and then he had to make a decision as well He had to decide whether he was going to obey God or whether he also would take a bite of that forbidden fruit to maybe cover her so she wouldn’t get in so much trouble. I don’t know. But both of them wound up being kicked out of the Garden of Eden because they were disobedient to God. So this is exactly what Satan does. He casts doubt. It’s a trick of the enemy. If you doubt your salvation and if you fear that you might have lost it, then you’re gonna work a lot harder to be good and try to make it up to God, thus never have the assurance that you really are saved. In Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It’s a gift of God and not of works, lest any man would brag about it. You can go to Sunday school every day of your life. You can tithe every day of your life. You can refuse to smoke, refuse to drink, refuse to say a swear word. Always pay your taxes on time and you can still die and go to hell. He that believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And he that believeth not, the wrath of God abides on him already. How do you get saved? You’re saved by faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. It’s a grace gift from God. During your time on earth, you might become rather battle-weary. I mean, after all, you’ve got three enemies to contend with, three enemies on three different fronts, the world, the flesh, and then obviously the devil. But don’t despair because your Heavenly Father will sustain you. Isaiah 40, 29, he gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. In Isaiah 41, 10, do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you and uphold you. with my righteous right hand. There it is. Why would you despair with those kind of promises? What kind of promises does God make if we sin? What if I sin and you sin and we fail? We do something really dumb and stupid and we’re ashamed of it. 1 John 1, 9, problem-solving device number one, rebound. If we confess our sin, he’s faithful and righteous to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He does it every time. He doesn’t compromise his justice by doing that. Anytime you sin, you must go to God and admit your sin freely, and he’s faithful and just to forgive you. What about your future? Did the Lord Jesus Christ make any promises about that? Yes, he did in John 14, one through three. Do not let your heart be troubled. If you believe in God, believe also in me because in my father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. Now I’m going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself so that where I am, you may be also. That’s a promise. That’s a promise from the immutable God of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ. What kind of promise did he make in regards to divine assistance while we live in this devil’s world? Well, in John 14, 16, I will ask the heavenly father and he will give you a helper so that he could be with you forever, forever. That’s the Holy Spirit of truth whom the world does not receive because it doesn’t know him, doesn’t see him, but you know him because he abides in you and will be in you. You have a divine appointed tutor, a coach, a helper. It’s the Holy Spirit. When you believed in Christ, God the Holy Spirit indwells you, and he’s in you today. God promises length of days for your life if you will listen to him. In Proverbs 3, 1 and 2, my son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for a length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. This is how you live a long, wonderful, peaceful life. How? Do not forget the teachings of God’s word or his mandates. What is going on in America today? Oh, don’t say anything about God’s word. Don’t teach anything about God’s word in the public venue. Don’t mention God in the public school. Don’t mention God in the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know what I’m talking about. Satan is doing anything he can to shut up the teaching of the clear word of God. Listen, there’s some negative promises to the foo also in Proverbs 1.7. Foos despise wisdom. Foos despise instruction. Proverbs 1.22. Foos hate knowledge. In Proverbs 1, 24, because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and you didn’t pay attention. You neglected all my counsel. You did not want my reproof. So I will laugh at you and mock you when your dread comes. When your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then you’ll call on me, but I’m not going to answer. Then you’ll seek me diligently, but you won’t find me because you hated knowledge. You didn’t want to know. You wanted God to be a genie in an eight ball, and he doesn’t play that little game. So can you trust God? Absolutely. Would he ever lie to you? No, he would not. Our Father would never tell you a story. He loves you. He provided for you. He gave his son for you. It’s the most wonderful gift anyone could ever receive. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
SPEAKER 01 :
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.
