Rick Hughes shares insights on overcoming life’s challenges with spiritual wisdom. Discover the ten problem-solving devices that can help you navigate the ripple effects of the flesh, the world, and Satan. Find out why humility is strength, how authority in life should be navigated, and the powerful assurance of faith in understanding life, death, and resurrection.
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, and for the next few minutes, stay with me. It’ll be a short time, not very long, but motivation, inspiration, education, and always done without manipulation. We say this every show for a reason, but just so you’ll know, we’re not trying to con you. We’re not seeking to get money. We’re not trying to hustle you. We’re not asking you to join anything. We’re just simply asking you to listen to the teaching of the Scripture, the Word of God. My objective is to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. My prayer for you is that you will be able to orient and adjust to that plan. If you do, you have the possibility of having the most phenomenal life the world has ever known. It’s called the Christian life and it’s a life without worry. It’s a life without fear. It’s a life without bitterness. It’s a life without jealousy. What a great way to live. Does that sound fantastic? It’s a life with a purpose and a life with a meaning and a direction and a life of comfort and assurance. That’s a life in Christ. And so my prayer for you as you listen to the flotline is that you will orient and adjust to the grace plan of God so that you can live a life such as the life our Savior lived, who demonstrated it to us when he walked in the devil’s world. He’s now seated at the right hand of the Father above from when he comes to judge the quick and the dead, and he will come back. He will return for us. But while he was here, he demonstrated the type of life we could have, Christian life. What a phenomenal thing. And the purpose of building a flat line in your soul is to learn to think like he thought. The Bible indicates in Philippians 2, 5 that we are to let this mind be in us that was also in Christ Jesus. That means we have to change the way we think. Paul said it this way, renovate your thinking in Romans 12, 1, 2, and 3. Stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think, but think in terms of humility as God has assigned each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. And so your life is really centered around what you think, not what you look like. Not the things you do, but what you think. The real you exists in your thoughts, and that’s where your soul is, the mentality of your soul. If you can think, you can live. And if you can think the Christian life, if you can think divine operating principles given in the Word of God called the flotline, then you can have this phenomenal life. Learning those 10 problem-solving devices is amazing. That’s the purpose, so that you can renovate your thinking, you can learn how to live and apply the Word of God to your life in a daily situation, so that you don’t have to follow the trends of the flesh, the sin nature. You know, we have three enemies. We have the flesh, which is our number one enemy. And the Bible warns us the flesh will war against the spirit and the spirit wars against the flesh. They’re contrary one to the other. So the spirit is the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you. And the flesh is your sin nature that you’ve had ever since you were born into this world. Excuse me. And so you have a sin nature, and then you have another enemy, which is called the world, the cosmos, the cosmic system. And then your third enemy is called Satan, aka the devil, the fallen angel. So you have three enemies, and learning to overcome those enemies means learning how to think, because every one of those that I just mentioned to you, the world, the flesh, and the devil, all want to manipulate how you think. They all want you to think in terms of arrogance, which is nothing but self-centeredness. Arrogance is self-centeredness. So an arrogant person will always justify why they’re right and the rest of the world is wrong. And if you have arrogance in your life, you are self-centered. You may even have self-pity. So you have to be careful not to allow the thinking of the world or the doctrine of demons, the thinking of Satan, or the self-centered lust of the flesh to manipulate how you think and how you live your life. You have a volition. God gave it to you. He gave you the ability to choose. And so that’s really up to you. No one can do it but you. No one can make you study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. As the Bible says, no one can make you grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as the Bible says. No one can make you take my yoke on you and learn of me, as the Bible says. Study, grow, learn. What’s the objective of all of that? To be Christ-like. to live a life like Christ lived in your thoughts, in the way you think while you’re in the devil’s world, while you’re battling the flesh, while you’re facing the cosmic system, thinking the right thoughts. And that means thinking in terms of humility. That’s why the Bible says he humbled himself and made himself of no reputation in Philippians 2, 6, 7, and 8. Made himself of no reputation, humbled himself, identified himself with humanity. Humility doesn’t mean you’re weak. Humility means you orient to authority. and you’re able to handle authority, even if it’s unfair. I mean, authority is not always fair. Sometimes it’s unfair, but if you can handle authority, you can handle life. Your authority in your life is the scripture. It’s the word of God, is alive and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, the Bible says. That’s the authority that you must obey. And Jesus Christ, our Lord, representing God the Father, speaks through the word. And in order to live this life, he gives you the power to do it. by means of the Holy Spirit. And so he said that he would go away and he would send a comforter and he would guide you and lead you into all truth. That’s the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Even in your prayer life, the Holy Spirit intercedes for you. And so, our Lord has made complete provision for us by learning those 10 problem-solving devices. We learn to think like He thought. By using rebound, we can deal with sin when we fail. Now, our Lord never sinned. He never sinned not even one time. Never did He commit any sin. But we do, because we are saddled with Adam’s original sin nature. So when we sin, we can rebound, 1 John 1, 9, and we are cleansed from our sin. And the reason that takes place is because Christ was judged for our sin on the cross, all sin. So we not have to be judged again when we sin, we simply have to be cleansed when we sin. The second problem-solving device was the filling of the Holy Spirit. And this lets you live under control of the Spirit, not under control of the flesh. And then the faith rest drill, the problem-solving device number three, is facing the adversary, facing the unknown circumstances in your life. You live by faith. By faith, the Bible talks so much about living by faith. And grace orientation is a problem-solving device when you learn about the grace of God, saving grace, living grace, dying grace. See, this is all review. Just review. You’ve heard this before, but let me run it by you again. Doctrinal orientation. Another problem solving device, orienting to the scripture, learning to make decisions based on what the scripture says, thinking divine viewpoint, not human viewpoint, having a personal sense of destiny, knowing God’s plan and understanding the details of that plan for your life. And being motivated by virtue love, personal love for God and impersonal love for others. Virtue love is the greatest love system the world’s ever seen because the Bible says if you love me, you will obey me and my mandates are not grievous. Using impersonal love for all mankind is a wonderful way to live. Jesus Christ our Lord did it. He loved even Judas who sold him out for a few pieces of silver. He loves you even though you may have turned your back on him too. You may have turned your back on the Lord, but he will love you from behind. He’ll never throw you under the bus. He’ll never forsake you. He said, I will never forsake you. He promised that, John 10, 28, 29, and Hebrews 13, 5. And so then you share the happiness of God, this plus H, amazing happiness, not the neutral H the world offers, which is related to details and people, but The real happiness of God, which is Luke 11, 27, and 28. Happiness belongs to those people who hear my Father’s Word and keep it. And then occupation with Christ. The greatest wonderful mental attitude in the world, orienting to the Lord Jesus Christ. Being occupied with Christ. Having his mindset and understanding who he is and what he is. You know, as we get older and we approach the later stages of life, it’s not like we’re 18 again or 25 or 35 or 40. Now some of us are getting on up to 70 and older. And we start thinking about the future and thinking about heaven. I want to give you some information here today that I’ve assembled for you to remember and when we talk about occupation with Christ. First of all, let’s talk about the gate to heaven, heaven’s gate. What does that mean? Well, it means the gate to heaven is not made of iron. It’s not made of wood. but it is a person it is the person of jesus christ the anointed son of god and anyone who wishes to enter heaven must come through him how do i know that john 10 9 i am the gate whoever enters through me will be saved so the only way to come into the presence of god the father is through Jesus Christ, his anointed son. You don’t come through Christ, you don’t enter the gate. Not all can enter the gate. And this is where it’s a disappointing thing, but Satan will use organized religion to deceive many people into thinking they’re gonna get into heaven because, not because of their relationship with Christ, but because of their good deeds. You see, they may have joined up, fessed up, give it up, whatever they’ve done, but they haven’t put faith alone in Christ alone. They’re thinking, They’re going to go to heaven because they don’t drink, they don’t smoke, they’re immoral, they’re not immoral, they’re kind, they give to their fellow man, they help people in charity, etc., etc., ad nauseum. But that’s not how it works. In Matthew 7, 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. but only the one who does the will of my Father, which is in heaven. Only the one who does the will of my Father, which is in heaven. John 6 says, this is the will of the one who sent me, that you believe in me whom he has sent. The will of the Father is that you believe that Jesus Christ is his anointed son, and you receive the judgment that he paid in your price. You receive the free gift of salvation. That’s why the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith. It’s a gift, a gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast about it. So the only one that will be in heaven is the one who goes through the gate of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Faith alone in Christ alone is clear. Behind the gate is eternal life, eternal kingdom of God that will endure forever. Once you walk in to that gate, once you go through that gate, John 3, 3, Jesus replied, very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. Of course, you remember Nicodemus was stunned over that statement. He didn’t understand how a person could go back into his mother’s womb and be born again. And our Lord was shocked. He said, I’m surprised you being a Pharisee don’t know this. And he explained to him how the wind blows and you don’t see it and you don’t know it, but it’s there. You can feel it. It’s real. And he talked about the spiritual birth is the same way. It’s a spiritual birth, not a physical birth. Being born again is not physically something that you accomplish. It’s something you accomplish spiritually. What it simply means is this. You’re born spiritually dead in Adam. Your human spirit is dead. When you believe in Jesus Christ and receive him as your Savior… God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell your human spirit, Ephesians 1.13, and you’re made alive spiritually or spiritually born again, spiritually. And now you’re able to have a relationship with the Father because the Bible says if we worship God, we must worship him in spirit and in truth. And if you’re dead spiritually, it’s impossible to worship God. So spiritually being born again, It’s what our Lord taught in John 3.3. Excuse me. Being in heaven is much better than being on earth. That’s clear. The Bible is clear. Paul talked about that in Philippians 1.21. He said, for me to live is Christ, and to die, well, that’s just profit. And so that’s what you should remember. You look at this world. As you get older and you see your things that you have, your home, your family, your property, and you think, I’m going to leave all this behind. I’m losing. You’re not losing anything. You’re gaining. It’s profit to be in heaven. That’s the amazing thing. Once you walk through the gate of believing the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible clearly says, he that believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And he who believes not, the wrath of God abides on him already. Excuse me. Got a cold, so you can hear me trying to talk. So when you believe in Christ, The door is open. You walk through into eternal life, but you can live as an unbeliever and you’re already condemned. I mean, you don’t have to die to be condemned. You’re already condemned. But as a believer, you’re already in the eternal phase. So to be absent from the body is to be face to face with the Lord. It’s just that simple. So when that time comes, you know, the thing that people fear most often is death. They do fear death. And being Easter Sunday, we talk about the death and the burial and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He demonstrated that death could not hold him. And it is true that death cannot hold you either. In Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, we learn why our Lord had to become a human. Listen to it. Since children have flesh and blood, he too, that’s Christ, shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might break the power of him, that’s Satan, who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all of their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. So the Lord Jesus Christ had to become a human to overcome Satan and his plan. He had to die to prove that death cannot hold him. And walking out of the tomb being resurrected was genuine proof that he is God. And so Jesus tasted death for all of us. In Hebrews 2, 9 and 10, but we do see Jesus who was made lower than the angels for a little while, but he’s now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. That’s exactly what he did. The Lord Jesus Christ tasted death for all of us, you and me and everyone. He was judged on the cross and he was resurrected from the grave. And it was by his atoning grace that we are saved. You know, the Bible speaks about two different deaths. I don’t know if you’re aware of that, but spiritual death was the penalty for sin and was so given as the warning to all of mankind by means of the Garden of Eden. This penalty is perpetuated throughout the human race through the imputation of Adam’s original sin to each one of us. Listen to me as I read Romans 5, 12. Therefore, just as through one man’s sin entered into the world, and death, or spiritual death, through that sin, so spiritual death spread to all men because all have sinned when Adam sinned. So we’re all born spiritually dead. And we all must be born spiritually again. by entering the gate, coming through Jesus Christ, receiving him as our savior. Physical death is the second death mentioned in the Bible. It’s the natural progression of life. Your body must be shed if you expect to get a resurrection body. This body won’t work in heaven. Now, your body, like mine, may be getting older, maybe even a little heavier. Things don’t feel as fresh and wonderful as they used to feel. I mean, can’t you remember, like me, when you were young and you waked up and you didn’t hurt, nothing bothered you? You didn’t have to take any aspirin or Advil or Tylenol at all because you felt fantastic. And now as you get older and the body starts breaking down and arthritis gets in there and tendonitis gets in there and maybe even some cancer gets in there and then we start feeling lousy, rotten and bad. It’s the natural progression of things. It has to happen because this body that we live in where our soul and our spirit lives will not work in heaven. We are going to get a different body. So we have to put off the mortal body to put on the immortal body. We have to shed this body and we have to die physically. And our Lord did the same thing on the cross. He died physically on that cross. The Bible says he willingly gave up his spirit and the Roman soldiers were amazed. They’d never seen anybody do anything like that. When he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, they just freaked out when the earthquakes occurred and darkness occurred. And even the centurion said, this man was a son of God. Yes, Jesus Christ is the son of God. And so the Bible says that physical death is a natural progression of life. And this body must be shed. If Christ had not have died on the cross, he could not have resurrected from the tomb. It had to take place. Hebrews 9, 27, it’s appointed unto man once to die. And after that, the judgment. Yes, we will all be judged. either at the great white throne of judgment for lost people in Revelation chapter 20, or at the judgment seat of Christ in 1 Corinthians 3, where you’re given your rewards and evaluated. But just like there are two deaths in the Bible, there are also two births in the Bible. The first one is physical birth, and the second one is spiritual birth. Listen as the Bible says in John 3, 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that’s physical birth. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit, that’s spiritual birth. So what to remember when someone you love, a loved one, makes a transfer from time to eternity what what should you remember if your husband goes to be with the lord or your wife goes to be with the lord or your mom or your dad go to be with the lord what do you remember well you remember this they’re not dead their body may have worn out because it was not meant to last forever. And the resurrection body is the one that will never wear out. So they are not dead. They are alive. And they are in some interim body in the presence of the Father until they get their resurrection body. Even though you can’t speak to them, you can discover where they are And you can discover what they’re doing by studying scripture. The Bible reveals these things to you. So if your departed loved one was a Christian and you’re a Christian, you will see them again. You see, time is not essential in heaven. Thus, one day in heaven is like a thousand years, you know, on earth. 2 Peter 3.8, but do not forget one thing, dear friends, with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. So your departed loved one who’s in heaven, face to face with their Savior, is awaiting the resurrection body, the body that they will have forever, the body that’s an amazing body like the resurrected body of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5.8, we are confident, I say willing, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. You know, the disciples witnessed the death of their beloved Jesus, but they also witnessed the resurrection of that same Jesus, which demonstrated his power over death. Acts 2.24, but God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. And it is impossible for death to keep a hold on you if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ. romans 6 9 for we know that since christ was raised from the dead he cannot die again and death no longer has a mastery over him so here’s the conclusion if christ died and rose again and he’s with the father today you and i can expect the same thing since we are in christ and we are members of god’s royal family in fact death is a time of promotion and a time of celebration for believers I mean, not mourning. We always have sweet memories of our departed loved ones. We don’t have to mourn. And the absolute assurance that we will see them again. In 1 Thessalonians 4, 13. Brothers and sisters, we don’t want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left unto the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. That’s resurrection bodies. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout, command with the voice of the archangel, with a trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, And after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we evermore be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. The Bible uses the term sleep to describe death, and this is done for several reasons. I mean, first, it appears the person is asleep, not really deceased, but just as a sleeper wakes up so the departed one would be resurrected and rise again. And it’s in this resurrected state that we will enjoy our God and our Savior as well as our loved ones forever and forever and forever. Maybe even, and I add caution here, maybe even your favorite pet. Who knows? There are horses in heaven, the Bible says. So that’s what you must remember today. Our Lord was resurrected and you will be resurrected and you will be face to face with him forever. You and those you love who believe in Jesus Christ. He is the gate. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. I hope it’s clear, I hope you understand it, and I sure hope you’re listening. Until next week, I’m your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for being with me and thank you for listening to The Flotline.
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.
