Learn how to pass people testing using God’s 10 problem-solving devices. Discover why believers face “people testing” and how God uses adversity to shape, strengthen, and mature us. Rick Hughes explains the purpose behind difficult personalities, how to respond with grace instead of frustration, and how the 10 problem-solving devices help you pass every people test without losing your spiritual stability. This episode offers clear, practical insight for living the Christian life with poise, humility, and biblical thinking.
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, please stay with me. Only about 30 minutes of motivation, a lot of inspiration, a whole lot of education, and absolutely no manipulation because we don’t con people. We’re not soliciting money. We’re not trying to sell you a book. We’re just going to ask you to listen as I try to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. And if that happens, you can orient and adjust to the plan if you choose to do so. It’s your life. God gives you one shot at it, and I hope you make those good decisions. Because remember, bad decisions limit future options. Our website is rickhughesministries.org. rickhughesministries.org. You can go there and you can hear any of these radio shows under the concept FLOTLINE, F-L-O-T. That’s the name of our radio show. The FLOTLINE stands for the Forward Line of Troops. And that’s an analogy for 10 unique problem-solving devices that God gives us so that we can understand the mechanics to the Christian life. A lot of people don’t talk about mechanics from the pulpit today, but they get all emotional about stuff. But if you don’t understand the mechanics to the Christian life, You’re never going to glorify God to the maximum in your own personal life. So I hope you’ll visit our website. Feel free to order any of the books that we offer there. They’re all free. And you can even have some of them read to you by our announcer who reads them online. Thank you for giving me a few minutes of your time this morning. During the years 1971 to 2022, that’s a lot of years, I traveled many, many miles across the southeast speaking in private schools and public schools. The public schools eventually stopped allowing speakers to talk about God in the assembly programs, so the open doors for me were mostly in the private schools of various states. Many times the administration of that school would request that I do some special assemblies for the faculty. They called that in-service training. They were mostly done after school or either on days that the students had off. One particular public school that I spoke in, I remember this one particularly, asked me to hold five assemblies every day because they couldn’t put all the kids in the auditorium at one time. There would be trouble. So they broke them down to five different classes, so I had to give the same message on Monday five times, the same message on Tuesday five times, the same message on Wednesday five times, but always to a different group. And then after school, meet with the teachers for an hour. So that was 25 assemblies with students that week and five faculty sessions. In order for me to teach biblical principles to the staff of that school and other schools that I spoke in, I developed a series entitled, Test Teachers Often Fail. The idea was that teachers are always giving tests to the students, but they also are facing tests in their own life on a daily basis. The two areas of testing that I covered with the faculty and staff of those schools were people testing and system testing. People testing and system testing. Both areas of great concern because of the inconvenience they create. But there was a way that those faculty members could pass these particular tests and not let them create stress-related sins like anger, frustration, or depression. So if you’ve made the decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you’re going to be facing similar testing in your life. No one wants to live under conflict, but you may be surprised to learn why believers like you and I must go through various trials. The psalmist put it this way in Psalm 119, verse 71. Listen carefully. It’s good for me that I’ve been afflicted. so that I might learn thy statutes. In this passage, the writer or the psalmist admitted that through the affliction he went through, he realized more and more the value of God’s laws. As children of God, you and me, both we are under constant molding by the Holy Spirit and by the scriptures on a daily basis if we stay in fellowship and study our Bible. So when the Heavenly Father allows testing or conflict to enter into our area of operation, I said our area of operation, that’s your personal life, and it’s always to teach us something about ourselves so that we might live a life pleasing to God. Because our lives are a testimony to His grace and a testimony to His mercy and forgiveness. So if God allows adversity into your life, and I know some of you are having it right now, he also will provide the solutions. So remember this unique saying my pastor used to always tell me. He used to say, human solutions are no solutions, divine solutions are the only solutions. One of the biggest areas of testing in the Christian life is people testing. Our Lord had to deal a lot with this when he called his disciples. because they sure had a lot of things to learn. He had 12 men that made a lot of mistakes. One of those men betrayed him. You know him as Judas, the betrayer. One of those men denied him. That’s Peter, when he said, I never knew him, never heard of him. And two of them fought to have supremacy in the kingdom of God. That’s James and John. One wanted to be on the right hand when they got there, and the other wanted to be on the left hand when he got there. So it’s amazing how the Lord put up with all these people. And the only way he could do it was to use the divine solution and spiritual skills that he had as a man. Remember, this was a hypostatic union, God and man in one body forever. So as a man, he faced tests just like you and I face. But as God, he didn’t face any testing. So he had to use the same divine solution you and I use. He used the filling of the Holy Spirit, and he used the word of his Father. Our Lord never sinned. He never failed. He never got frustrated. He never got mad. He never got angry with them. He never kicked them off the team like you and I might have done. He loved them. He just loved them. He nurtured them. He encouraged them, and he dealt with them. Now, that’s one of the greatest areas of testing you and I will ever face, people testing. One of the greatest test problems you will face is called people testing, as I said, because I have a term for it. I’m going to introduce you to this unique term. I’m going to introduce you to Mr. W.O.J. You say, well, never heard that term before. What is a W.O.J.? Well, it’s short for weird, obnoxious jerk. And you’re in big trouble if you live next door to one, I assure you. That’s called a people test. And some of these people have, let’s see, what I call an OPD. Another key word, OPD. What is an OPD? It’s an obnoxious personality disorder. I guess that’s what I’m trying to say. Some people are just weird. So when you’re around these weird people, they can try to occupy your time and And they want to occupy your space when all you want is a little freedom and a little room. But you have to deal with these sort of people on a daily basis. When you’re in the ministry and you’re in a crowd of people, there are always those people that want to manipulate you and control you. So you have to deal with that. Family members especially want to control you, especially in the death of a loved one. You think about how many people lose their parents and the siblings fight over their inheritance. People testing. Life is full of people tests. People that you work with, people that you go to school with, people that you drive alongside the interstate with. And we’re supposed to love them, according to Luke 10, 27. How do you love a weird, obnoxious jerk? Well, that’s the unique thing about the 10 problem-solving devices. Personal love for God, impersonal love for other people. Personal love for God is our motivational virtue and impersonal love for others is a functional virtue. You can love a person not based on who they are, not based on what they are, not based on what they say or don’t say, but based on who you are, your integrity. That’s the same way God loved you. God so loved the world. That’s what it says. And you and I were W-O-Js when he loved us. We were weird, obnoxious jerks. and yet he loved us and you can use that same love in your spiritual life under the fruit of the spirit in galatians 5 fruit of spirits is love and joy and peace along suffering you can love obnoxious people but you can only do it based on who you are what you are not who they are so the first principle you have to learn in life is you can’t change anybody but yourself Why is that? Because just as I talk to you, I realize everybody has volition. And you can only live your life as unto the Lord. And you can demonstrate to other people how not to worry. You can demonstrate to them how not to be afraid. You can demonstrate to them how to have a perfect peace in the middle of any storm. But whatever you do, don’t preach to them. Don’t try to straighten them out, even if they’re your own children. That just doesn’t work. Some people are just going to swim upstream all their life. And if you are associated with these upstream swimmers, then that will be a test for you, whether or not you can pass that test using impersonal love, loving them on the basis of who you are, your integrity, not theirs. The Bible tells us in Romans 12, 21, stop being overcome by evil, but overcome evil by means of divine good. The exact opposite of evil is called grace. God’s plan is grace, for by grace you’re saved through faith is the gift of God, not of works as anyone should boast about it. Satan takes that grace and puts a twist on it, and then it becomes evil. So if Satan takes grace and says, for by grace you’re saved through giving up bubble gum and no longer drinking RC colas, don’t eat any more moon pies, then maybe you can go to heaven. That’s not correct. When anybody tells you you got to repent of your sins, that’s about the dumbest thing I ever heard of. You can’t repent of sin. Your sin’s already been paid for and you’re going to sin again and again and again and again because you have a sin nature. So if you promise God, you tell him, I’m so sorry that I sinned. I’m not going to sin anymore. Well, you’re already in the trap because Satan’s got you. I’m going to make a liar out of you real quick. The grace of God supplies every operating asset we need. It’s all been provided for us. But under evil, how Satan takes God’s word and twists it, there are no assets. And so if a person gets under the doctrine of evil, they swim upstream, going against the flow. They’re constantly trying to prove themselves. And eventually they have a very miserable life. And they’ll tell you about it too, how miserable their life is. But they don’t want you to tell them why. They don’t want you to give them an answer. And don’t give them an answer unless they ask you. I mean, if they say, why do you think I’m having such a miserable life? Then you can tell them, I’d be more than happy to share it with you. They don’t have operating assets. We don’t have this if you’re a mature believer. That should not be you. So be aware and be careful that you don’t lose your own integrity and you don’t lose your own spiritual strength when you interact with people like this. In other words, don’t let people like this who have these mental attitude sins and verbal sins drag you down with them. Don’t let that happen to you. There are several things you must possess if you hope to pass people testing. I want to give them to you. I hope you’ll make a note, write them down, or call us and get the transcript one of the two. You can always call us at 800-831-0718. And I told you last week that we were redoing our contracts for the next year. And we would like to hear from you if you’re listening. We’d like to know where you are. So just give us a call or go to our website and drop us a letter. Let us know you’re listening. So when we sign our contracts for the thousands of dollars we have to spend every year to have this radio show and over 120 radio stations, at least we know somebody like you is out there listening. I appreciate if you’ll let us know. Don’t send us money. I’m not asking you for money. I’m just asking you to tell us I’m listening. So good. So you need to remember these things if you’re going to pass people testing. Number one, you’ve got to have a foundation of humility. You’ve got to have a foundation of humility because arrogance won’t work. Humility. Remember Philippians 2, 5, the verse we’ve quoted many, many, many times on this radio show. Let this thinking, let this mind, this thinking be in you that was also in our Lord Jesus Christ who humbled himself. That’s the first thing he taught, humility. He humbled himself and took upon himself the form of a servant. So our Lord Jesus Christ in his humanity, took upon himself the form of a servant. He wasn’t arrogant. He took upon himself a human life, a human flesh, and became a servant. So again, Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you. Learn to think just like the Lord Jesus Christ thought and humbled himself and took upon himself the form of a servant. You know, having humility means you’re oriented to the grace of God. It means you’re not full of delusion and arrogance. Because you know what? An arrogant person doesn’t have any humility. An arrogant person thinks he’s something that he’s not. And so he justifies what he does. If you want to look at arrogance, just go turn on your TV and watch the news and look at some of the politicians that are working today across this country from the United States of America. Some of the most arrogant people I’ve ever seen are in politics. because they think that they’re right and everybody else is wrong, and they try to justify the decisions that they make based on their own arrogance and evil. However, if you, on the other hand, have a foundation of humility, And what is that? That’s based on the number one thing, which is called the filling of God, the Holy Spirit, and the number two thing, the residence of God’s word in your soul. That’s where your humility comes from, from the filling of God’s Holy Spirit and the residence of God’s word in your soul. If you’ve got that, that you then learn when you’re criticized and when you face testing of people, you can pass that test using those 10 problem-solving devices. Do you even know what they are? If I’m talking mumbo-jumbo to you, 10 problem-solving devices, why don’t you go to my website and order the book, Christian Problem Solving. It lays out all 10 problem-solving devices for you. And in a nice, neat book, and we have a bookmark that goes along with it, we’ll be more than happy to send it to you without charge. You should know those 10 problem-solving devices. because those are your unique operating assets that God the Father has left for you so that you can function in his plan as long as you’re in the devil’s world, in your own area of operation. So the second thing I want you to remember, if you’re gonna pass this people testing, you’ve got to have some professionalism, professionalism of understanding the mechanics of God’s will, the mechanics of God’s plan, the mechanics of God’s purpose for you. It’s a shame to say that many Christians go through life never knowing what the will of God is, never learning how the plan of God operates, and never understanding what God’s purpose is for their life. You must know this, and it starts with you learning these 10 unique problem-solving devices Because you will not, you cannot ever live God’s plan unless you know these things. It’s impossible. And you might not call it what I call them. You might not be calling them the flat line. You might not be calling them those 10 problem solving devices. You may call them another thing. But if you don’t understand how to be filled with the Spirit, if you don’t understand how to deal with your sin, if you don’t understand the faith rest drill, if you don’t understand the integrity of God, the personal love for God and impersonal love for others, if you don’t have a personal sense of destiny, if you don’t understand occupation with Christ, you’re never, ever going to live a successful Christian life. And you’ll constantly be riding a wave of your emotions, fired up, fired down, fired up, fired down. You’ll be going from one meeting to another trying to feel God. You can’t live God’s plan unless you understand these things. It’s impossible. So if you don’t know how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you will never live God’s plan. If you don’t know how to operate in the faith rest drill, you will never live God’s plan. If you don’t understand grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, you will never live God’s plan. As I said, you may call it something else, but it’s what it is. So if you don’t know what your personal sense of destiny is, how can you enjoy God’s plan? If you don’t have personal love for God, you don’t have the motivation to fulfill God’s plan. And if you don’t have impersonal love for the weird people, then you don’t have the ability to fulfill God’s plan. And if you don’t have the happiness of Christ, you cannot enjoy God’s plan. And finally, if you’re not occupied with Christ, well, then you’re never going to be in the plan of God to start with. On our next radio show, I’m going to make a big point out of this. Being occupied with Christ is the number one important thing in your life. So now the third thing you have to deal with is people testing is you must have some spiritual strength for you to use a shield of faith. That is when you get into an environment of confusion and even disaster, confusion and disaster coming quickly to this United States of America and the year of our Lord 2025, we’re already on the verge of confusion. The culture is changing so rapidly today that many people’s consciences are being assaulted by the change in the culture. In other words, to prove it, evil is now good and good is now evil. That’s kind of the way it’s happening today. Many people have changed evil into something that’s good and good into something that’s evil. So disaster is coming. It’s the course we’ve chosen for ourselves. And predictably, it’s going to lead to a train wreck in this nation. You’ve heard me say there’s a train wreck coming in America and the whistle is blowing right now. We are facing a disaster because we’re on a collision course with our culture and our conscience. They do not coincide. And here we are in America today. We have people in charge of our country that are trying to change the very basis that we live by, the very premise that this nation was founded upon. Talk about a people test. That’s a test. The biggest people test you’ll face, politicians. Let me give you some additional notes here. The environment of confusion causes stress in your life. So if there’s confusion in some areas of life, like in your home or in a romance or friendship, then there will be stress in this area. This is the neat thing about the Christian life. If you learn these 10 problem-solving devices, you don’t have to be confused. You will have the capability to discern what is going on. This is taught in Proverbs 2.10 where the fantastic four is mentioned. Wisdom, insight, discernment, and understanding. Wisdom, insight, discernment, and understanding. That’s the only way you’re going to get it is to learn those ten unique problem-solving devices and to execute them in your life on a daily basis. Where there’s confusion nationally, if you don’t think clearly, then you’ll be broken. Why is that? Because a thought can make you or break you. A thought can make you or break you. Did you hear that? Marcus Aurelius once said, our life is what our thoughts make it. But more importantly, in the Word of God, Proverbs 23, 7 says, the Bible says, as a person thinks in his heart, so he is. In Galatians 6, 3, the Bible says, if anybody thinks he’s something when he’s nothing, he’s deceiving himself. That’s the arrogant person. The arrogant person thinks he’s smarter than you, thinks he knows all the answers. Has to get on talk radio, straighten everybody out, send me a letter, try to straighten me out, call me, try to straighten me out, call you, straighten you out. They know nothing. They think they know everything. They know nothing. They’re deceiving themselves. In your mind, in the mentality of your soul, there’s a battlefield. And that battle is always for what you’re thinking, because what you think will determine whether you win, whether you lose. In Ephesians 4.23, the Bible says, become refreshed by means of the Spirit in your thinking. Become refreshed by means of the Spirit in your thinking. That means that when you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, and God the Holy Spirit gives you the insight to think, as you should think, thinking the mind of Christ. See, you have to learn to think the word of God. It doesn’t come naturally. You have to learn to think it. That’s why people read their Bible, to think the word of God, to learn the principles taught in the word of God. That’s why you get into a good local church where there’s a qualified pastor so they can teach you what to think, not necessarily teach you how to act, That’s your own privilege. You can act however you want to act as long as you stay out of sin. But he’s trying to teach you what to think. And you must learn to think the word of God. You must learn to relate to the word of God. You must learn to use the word of God in your life because you cannot think what you don’t know. And that’s why the Bible says, Paul wrote these words, study to show yourself approved unto God, a work that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. If you can be approved under God, you can be disapproved under God. If you can be ashamed, you can be unashamed. The key is rightly dividing the word of truth. That’s where the key is. If you don’t have a well-qualified pastor to teach you that, then you will never pass the test of thinking correctly because you must think in your life. You must concentrate in your life to live your life. Your mind says, oh, time for breakfast. Oh, time for lunch. Time for supper. or dinner as they say in the north, supper in the south. So our minds tell us when to eat and when not to eat. Our minds are supposed to tell us what to think, what not to think. What do our minds do when we get in stress and we get in confusion? Is it like a dog wagging his tail going back and forth? You can’t get on the solution. You got to learn what to think. That’s why it’s mandated by the Bible in Colossians 3, verse 2. Colossians 3, verse 2. Keep thinking objectively, the Bible says, about things above and not about things on the earth. That means you must put your mind on heavenly things. You must think in terms of the mind of Christ. And you cannot get involved in jealousy. You cannot get involved in bitterness. If you put these two things together, they create a monster called vindictive thinking, vindictive living. And vindictiveness, when it gets rolling along, it leads to a lot of revenge motivation. It feeds on this. And you cannot afford to get into that. You cannot afford to live that way. So listen, these are people tests that I’m talking about, and it’s out there, it’s real, and I guarantee you that you’re facing one right now, aren’t you? In your very own life, you know what I’m talking about. I hope it’s making sense. In system testing, the other side of the coin, you must maintain your poise and your professionalism under the pressure of unjust treatment, and you perpetuate your high standards of workmanship during the unfair treatment. You don’t go around griping and complaining about how unfairly you’re being treated. Stay filled with the Holy Spirit. Keep a relaxed mental attitude. Respond. Don’t react. Don’t whine and complain. Use the unfair treatment as an opportunity to grow and glorify God because people are going to be watching you. People are always watching you, got their eye on you, keeping an eye on what you do. So if you’re going through a system test, you’re working at a place, they’re asking you to do something that’s not fair, asking you to work more than you should. A lot of these teachers did that. They teach all day long, want to go home, but the principal said, you got to be at the basketball game tonight. You got to be at the football game tonight. Maybe they didn’t want to. Maybe they just wanted to go home. But it was important to the faculty, the students, and the administration that the teachers be there to support the kids. That’s system testing. And if some teacher says, I don’t want to come to the game. I want to go home. Don’t whine. Don’t complain. Don’t call somebody up and whine about how bad you’re being treated at work. Use it as an opportunity to glorify God. Because people are watching you. I promise you. This is the word of God. I hope you’re listening. I sure hope you’re learning. And I hope you will contact me if you need some more information. So until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes. I’m saying thank you. Thank you so very much for listening to The Flatline. And by the way, our website again is rickhughesministries.org. rickhughesministries.org. If you call us on the 800 line, 800-831-0718, be sure to speak slowly and distinctly so we can get your name and address and get back in touch with you, okay? All right, until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
