This week on The Flotline, Rick Hughes emphasizes the importance of having a solid spiritual foundation to face life’s trials with courage and faith. Rick explains how trusting God and understanding his divine provisions can transform the way we respond to adversities. With compelling scriptures and personal insights, this episode encourages listeners to see every challenge as an opportunity to deepen their faith and develop spiritual perseverance. Tune in for a transformative session that inspires a new joy in affliction.
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 Rick Hughes, the host of the Flatline, heard every Sunday morning here on this local radio station. Thank you for listening. We always have about 30 minutes of motivation, inspiration, education, And we never have any manipulation because we don’t solicit money. We’re not trying to sell anything. We’re not trying to hustle funds. We simply want to give you accurate information. Hopefully that information will verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if I can do that, well, you have the privilege to orient and adjust to the plan. But the Flotline has been airing on these radio stations across the United States for 15 years now. This actually is show number 772. 772 Flotline shows I have produced from my studio here in Alabama. Thank you if you’ve listened to some of them. It’s been my honor to bring them to you. And I pray that God the Holy Spirit has used them to encourage you, to give you information, to point you towards a well-qualified pastor. where you can begin to grow consistently and learn God’s word every day of your life. Remember, all of these shows are transcribed and we have them available. I think I’ve told you before that we have the whole year of 2019 transcribed into three different volumes, and it’s available free of charge. So that’s quite a lot of reading, 52 radio shows transcribed into three different books. And we transcribe each and every show that we produce. And we have other material from our website, rickhughesministries.org. If you’d like to go there, you can see some of the material we have, especially the books on promises, the promises and principles found in the Word of God. the book called Life’s Toughest Years, written mainly for kids as they go from teenage years on up. And we recorded that in a school and took those messages that we recorded in a school, transcribed them, reduced them, and put them into a book with our staff, with our friends that help us. So anyhow, we’re here, and thank you for listening today. I want to talk to you today about the different things that the pressures that we come under. from circumstances sometimes beyond our control. You know, a lot of the suffering we go through is self-induced, self-induced misery. I mean, that’s very common where we mismanage our money and we mismanage our health or we mismanage our relationships. And it produces a lot of suffering in our life as a result of our mismanagement. But sometimes there are pressures that come into our life from circumstances completely beyond our control. And so there’s no doubt that we Americans have been under tremendous adverse circumstances the past few months. And, you know, I’m aware the entire world has faced the same test that we’re facing, but I’m only speaking to you that are here in Client Nation USA. It’s true, some may hear this message via the podcasts that we offer. We do offer this radio show in various podcast platforms, such as Apple iPod, Spotify, Anchor, Breaker, those different podcast venues. And sometimes people in other countries will hear them. So anyone in their respective countries, if they hear, they can apply the same principles to their circumstances. that I’m talking about us applying to our lives because God’s word is indeed for the entire planet. And the principles that I want to point out to you today, I want to point out are true wherever you may be. So let’s start off with the first verse of scripture. It may shock you to hear this, but here it goes. Psalm 119, verse 71. Psalm 119, verse 71. The psalmist wrote, it is good for me that I have been afflicted so that I may learn thy statutes. Beg your pardon? It’s good for me that I’ve been afflicted? Good? You’re saying this is good? Yes. Why? So that I may learn thy statutes. The Hebrew word for afflicted is the Hebrew verb anah. And it means to be brought down or to made low or to be humbled. And maybe that’s been the case in your life in the last few months. You’ve been humbled, you’ve been made low, you’ve been brought down. Why? So that, that’s a purpose clause in the Bible. Anytime you see that word that, it’s a purpose clause. So that the verb lamed, Hebrew verb lamed, It means so that I may learn. There’s the word l’mod, learn. That’s what l’mod means, to learn, the verb to learn through these adverse circumstances. So what am I doing? I’m learning through the circumstances. Why? Because my focus is different. All of a sudden, it’s not about the gifts. It’s more now about me and the giver. So I’m put in a situation through affliction or suffering or humility where now I can learn something that I didn’t know before. I may learn something about myself. I may learn something about God. But the affliction is going to cause me to learn something. So let’s get some principles. One, God allows unforeseen circumstances to that often bring frustration, so we would search his word for the answers. That’s what we should do. We should search the word of God for the answers. And number two, only God can remove the worldwide pandemic we face today. And only his divine provisions can protect you or me during such times as we are in now. My pastor recently taught Psalm 91, a tremendous verse, a passage in Psalm 91. And this is what it says, the first four verses. And you can see in these first four verses, deliverance. and the divine provisions that God can provide for you. In Psalm 91, one through four, he that dwelleth in the secret places of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Do you hear that? He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge. He is my fortress and my God, and in him I will trust. Surely, verse three, Psalm 91, he will deliver me from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. Verse 4, he shall cover me with his feathers and under his wings shall I trust. His truth shall be my shield and my buckler. Shield, truth, shield, the shield of faith. Ephesians 6.11 talks about pick up the shield of faith so that you can withstand the evil. enemies attack into your life. The shield of faith, you know it on the flat line as the faith rest drill, standing on the promises of God. That’s why we printed that book, Promises and Principles. It’s a beautiful book about the size of a telephone book, a small one, not a thick one, but it deals with many of God’s promises for your life and many principles delivered from those promises. So his truth or his word or Bible doctrine is our shield as we stand under his wings. And the verse went on to say, let me remind you again, it’s good for me that I’ve been afflicted so that I may learn your statutes. Statutes is a noun, chok, chok. That’s the Hebrew word, chok, and it decrees your ordinances or God’s laws in general. So one of the reasons that we are oftentimes go through affliction is to learn something, to learn something. Now, you’ve heard me say where the Lord Jesus Christ said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. You may think what you’re going through right now is a heavy burden, but it’s really not. And you’ve heard me say where the Bible says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth. Now is a time for you to learn. This is a time you can focus because you’re not looking at other things. You’re looking at one thing, the affliction that came into your life. So I got a couple of questions to ask you. Number one, what have you learned about God during your time of testing? Yeah, that’s right. What have you learned about God during your time of testing? You should have learned he’s faithful, he’s protected you, he’s watched over you, he’s provided for you. But have you used this time to concentrate your studies? Have you used this time to find a well-qualified pastor that you could study under and grow under? Two, what did you learn about yourself as well as what did you learn about God? What did you learn? Three, did God point out a weakness in your own soul through his word or through the scriptures? Or did he point out maybe your lack of application where you got emotional and scared and frustrated and angry and bitter because of some laws that have been passed that you don’t like? What did you learn about yourself by God’s word? And four, afflictions are what separate the winners from the losers. The losers are those believers that don’t stay filled with the Holy Spirit, those believers that don’t take time to learn God’s word and develop wisdom in their life where they have discernment and insight. Thus, they are losers in life because they compound their bad decisions and wind up self-destructing. So five, how do you handle unfair circumstances in your life? Do you complain? Are you full of self-pity? Or do you have complete confidence based on trusting your Heavenly Father, not just some self-determination, you know, hang in there, we’ll make it, this too will pass. I’ve heard all of those things. Yeah, we’ll be okay, let’s just hang in there. That’s not the place that we trust self-determination. We put our trust in Psalm 91. We dwell in the sacred place of the Most High under his wings. He’s our refuge. He is our God. He protects us. He’s our shield, our buckler. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ made an amazing statement about afflictions in his lifetime. When he was here on this earth in hypostatic union walking around as God and man, he made this statement to those disciples. In John 16, 33, these things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In me you might have peace. And remember, problem solving device number 10 is occupation with Christ. In the world you will have tribulation, he said. There we are, afflictions, adversities. But be of good cheer. Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. Be of, no, doesn’t that say complain and gripe and moan and be full of, no, it says be of good cheer. I overcame the world. And you also can overcome the world in Christ Jesus if you have a flatline in your soul. you can have the same mentality he had how do i know that because the bible says let this mind be in you that was also in christ jesus you can have that same mentality the bible said in romans 12 stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think think in terms of humility as god assigned to each of us a standard of thinking from his word the good cheer is yours and mine The world has been overcome. The Father knew about this in eternity past, what we’re facing today across the world in this pandemic. But it’s nothing for us to be afraid of. In the book of James, James wrote about our mindset or our attitude when adverse circumstances hit our life. You won’t believe what James said about it. He said, consider it all joy. Consider it all joy. Kind of sounds like the Lord Jesus Christ saying, be of good cheer, doesn’t it? Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Well, maybe this is not a bad thing. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe God’s trying to teach me something. The testing of my faith produces endurance. Endurance is the Greek word, hupomone, the noun. Hupomone translated patience or perseverance. So through our adversity, If we are in fact in fellowship with God, that means we’re filled with the Holy Spirit, God can teach us something through his word. If we will just be still and trust him and control our thoughts, don’t be afraid, don’t be frustrated, don’t be angry, by using the faithless drill. You see, in the Bible, Your life and my life is equated to a race. We are said to be in a race. If you’re gonna run the race, you must run it patiently. Listen to 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Do you not know that those who run in a race run all? But only one will receive the prize, so run in such a way that you may win. Because everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. And they then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable wreath. Now that’s an athletic metaphor written by the Apostle Paul using the Olympic Games as an illustration. And you can apply these things into your life. We are in a race, but only one’s going to receive the prize. There’s the winners and there’s the losers. So we’re to run in such a way that we can be winners. We must exercise self-control in all things. Self-control, that’s in your mind, that’s what you think. So there’s two ways you can deal with things. You can react to pressure with frustration and bitterness, or you can respond to pressure with faith and trust. How will you do it? How will you deal with? If you study the Jews when they came out of Egypt, you’ll see they didn’t deal with pressure very well at all. As a matter of fact, at one time, God offered to kill all of them and start over with Moses, and Moses said, don’t do that, Lord, please. You see, Moses had gone on the mountain to get the law, had been up there 40 days, and they hadn’t heard anything from him, and so they decided to make a golden calf and worship that. That didn’t go over too well. There was no self-control. Your life and my life, we must exercise self-control in all things, the Bible says. Why? To get an imperishable wreath at the judgment seat of Christ. Hebrews 12.1 talks about that race again. Therefore… Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, and that’s the invisible angelic host that’s watching every day, when you are going through these sort of tests that we’re going through in our nation, we’re being observed by invisible angels. So the Bible says, let’s lay aside every encumbrance And the sin that so easily entangles us, the sin, what sin is it in your life? What one sin do you keep going back to? What one sin keeps capturing you? And you have to rebound that sin over and over and over again. It encumbers you, that sin that overcomes you so easily and entangles us. There’s only one way to break that yoke, and that’s to stay filled with the Holy Spirit, to use the rebound technique. When you do fail and commit that specific sin and keep growing in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, you will get victory over it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you will get victory over it. I promise you. So we have a great cloud of witnesses watching today. surrounding, cheering. When you make a good decision, you can hear the angelic host of heaven applauding you. Lay aside the encumbrance and the sin that easily entangles you and run with patience, endurance. Run with patience the race that is set before you. That demands you have to have self-control. You can’t get squirrely. You can’t get thinking in terms of reactionary sins like fear and anger and bitterness. Listen to Isaiah 40, 31. Those who wait for the Lord, those who wait for the Lord, those who are patient, will gain new strength. They’ll be strong. Those who wait for the Lord, patience, will gain new strength. That means they’ll be strong. They’ll have spiritual confidence in their life. They will mount up with wings like an eagle. That’s an illustration, a metaphor for flying. Eagles fly, eagles soar, high above circumstances. This gives them a different perspective on life. An eagle can see a rat in a field from a thousand feet up in the air. When you have spiritual wisdom, When you have divine discernment and insight, you have vision like an eagle. You can mount up with wings of eagle. You can fly above the circumstances in your life, and you can have a new divine perspective on what’s going on, the perspective that the world doesn’t have. You know, they’ll bring people into different talk shows, radio shows, TV shows, and ask them, Their perspective on what’s going on and where we’re headed is never the same perspective that I have because my perspective is based on the Word of God, and yours should be too. And if they interviewed you, could you at least say, talk well enough do you know enough about the word of god to be able to define your perspective to tell these people what what motivates you and what you see coming so they will mount up with wings like eagles that means they’ll be above circumstances with a different divine perspective they will run and not get tired that’s another metaphor of a racer a runner And, you know, we live a fast-paced life. The spiritual life is fast-paced, here today, gone tomorrow. And when you are into the word of God with a flat line in your soul, you will never get tired. You will be advancing quickly, quickly in the plan of God in your life. And you will walk and not be weary. Walk is the long walk. It’s a long walk. So we have several metaphors there. Flying high above the earth, running fast, walking slow but deliberately, It means all of these things relate to your life as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. This new strength that you get, those who wait for the Lord, those who patiently wait for the Lord, will have strength, fly like an eagle, run like a racer, walk like a hiker, never get tired, never get run over, never get left behind. Here’s the principle. Your afflictions are designed to test you and create within you a new confidence and a new joy through spiritual growth your afflictions your testings your adversities the ones that you don’t create yourself the ones that are unforeseen that come into your life like what we’re facing today in this pandemic pressure from those circumstances those pressures are designed to test you and to create within you a new confidence and a joy A joy through spiritual growth. Yeah, we say joy. How do you get joy? Be of good cheer, Jesus said. There’s joy. What did James say? Count it all joy when you encounter various trials. There it is again. This test, this fire that you’re going through is refining you. It’s purging out the unnecessary emotions that grip you, like panic and insecurity in your life. Listen to Romans 5, 3. Paul wrote it this way. And not only this, but we also glory in our tribulation. We glory in our tribulation because we know that that tribulation brings about perseverance. We relish it. We love it. Because why? It’s teaching me patience. It’s teaching me to be steadfast, hupomone, perseverance. I gave you this word earlier, patience, hupomone. And that’s what this conflict is doing in your life. If you are a mature believer and you’re taking in the word of God, you are growing and you are learning and you are developing patience in your life. You’re becoming a different person. And that’s a wonderful thing. So, are you? Is that happening in your life? Are you developing that perseverance, that hupomone? Because adversity that you face in your life, that adversity is defined as a state of adverse circumstances or a condition of suffering. And there are basically a couple of types of suffering. One of them is suffering for blessing, which we are talking about here now. And that’s what we’re talking about. And then there’s also suffering for discipline. And we’re not talking about that one. Suffering for discipline is suffering we create. Suffering for blessing is suffering that we receive. So one of them, we receive it in order to grow. The other one, we receive it in order to be tested or disciplined or taught something. So what suffering are you going through? Are you being disciplined by God for your failure to execute the Christian life? Or are you being suffering for blessing? Are you suffering so that you can grow, you can have patience, you can persevere through this? See, this is what the world needs. This is what your family and your friends need. They need someone like you who can replicate the thinking of Christ in these adverse circumstances and not like everyone else who’s living in panic palace, frustrated and ready to jump out the window because they can’t do what they wanna do. Many, many believers, just like yourself, I mean, people just like us, they experience stress due to the inability to function under these adverse circumstances. And, you know, I mean, they turn to music, they turn to exercise, they turn to some sort of meditation to try to calm their frayed nerves. But you can avoid this sort of stress by having a floodline in your soul. here’s a principle i want you to remember remember i said it don’t forget it please write it down somewhere a shallow soul produces a shallow faith a shallow soul produces a shallow faith your soul must have depth to it and that depth is built on the word of god in your soul the more of the word of god you know the more along you are towards spiritual maturity in your life Remember, I’ve told you there’s a difference between being a spiritual Christian and a mature Christian. A spiritual Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit. He’s spiritual. A mature Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit and maximum amount of Bible doctrine in his soul. The shallow faith believer is a believer who operates on emotions. The believer who doesn’t have any doctrine in his soul. The believer who operates on his feelings. That’s a shallow soul. They won’t sustain you. So where does all that faith come from I’m talking about? Well, Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing, hearing and hearing by the word of God. Who do you hear? Who do you study under? Who’s your pastor? Who do you listen to on a daily basis? You know, there’s saving faith and there’s living faith. Where does faith come from? Saving faith is salvation, for by grace are you saved through faith. And living faith is the shield of faith, the faithless drill. The essence of faith consists of believing and receiving what God’s revealed through his word and through the ones who teach it to us. And adversity has the power to create enough stress, enough stress-related sins to destroy us, but faith has enough power to create trust and patience. We can overcome those sins. So the greatest way God can teach you or me patience is to allow adversity to come into our life, to allow adversity to come into our life, something we have no control over, so that we cannot push a button and make it go away. And he’s done it, hasn’t he? There are four key stress-related sins you’ve gotta defeat. Worry, fear, anger, and guilt. Worry, fear, anger, and guilt. Matthew 6.25 tells you not to worry. Matthew 14.28 talks about fear. James 1.6 talks about anger and guilt. Well, Satan can use your guilt to disillusion you with yourself. through some unrealistic self-image and unrealistic expectations. That’s your own arrogance. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been disgusted with yourself, maybe? I know I have from time to time, and Satan will use it. Well, I hope you’ve learned something today about pressure from circumstances. What God has allowed us to go through and what we’re seeing is all a divine design to learn so we can learn and grow so that we can replicate Christ and represent him to our friends. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flotline.
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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.
