Dive into a thought-provoking exploration of spiritual autonomy, where host Rick Hughes unpacks the significance of independence in one’s spiritual journey. Discover how humility and patience play essential roles in nurturing a stable Christian life, allowing believers to pass tests of faith and exhibit resilience. Drawing insights from biblical scriptures, this episode highlights the importance of adapting a mindset of self-reliance and spiritual maturity.
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 Good morning and welcome to the flatline
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I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, I’d like to invite you to stick around. Just a short time of motivation, some inspiration, some education, and absolutely no manipulation, no con games, no asking for money, not seeking membership. We just want to have a Bible study, teach you some things, help you to verify and identify the plan of God. And if we can do that and you’d like to orient and adjust to the plan, you have the freedom to do that. It’s your life. You’re responsible for your decisions. And remember, bad decisions… limit future options the flat line is building a main line of resistance in your soul based on 10 unique problem solving devices when you learn those 10 unique problem solving devices and use them on a daily basis then you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside source of stress since adversity seems to be inevitable We know that in the Christian life, stress is optional. There’s no reason for you to ever worry, no reason for you to ever be afraid, no reason for you to ever be agitated or irritated or full of any sort of animosity about anything. It’s a unique way of living the Christian life, and that’s what we teach here using those 10 problem-solving devices. Last Sunday morning, we started a study called Spiritual Autonomy. It may be a big word, but it simply means acting independently or standing alone or being able to govern yourself. And I told you that at certain times in our lives, we all have to learn how to stand on our own two feet. And this means that the believer, like you and me, we must prepare ourselves for testing and to face some difficulty without us having to depend on somebody else for our happiness or for our comfort. I quoted Psalm 23, 4, where it said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me, and your rod and your staff, they comfort me. I told you that’s not we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It’s I walk through. It’s individual. So we’ve learned that at certain times in people’s lives, including the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 4, 1 through 11, he had to face Satan alone and pass that test. In first Samuel 17, we saw how David faced Goliath alone and passed the test. And we saw last week how mental stability is a key issue in the spiritual life. Your spiritual life is in fact a mental attitude and is produced by the filling of the Holy spirit. You live your spiritual life in your head and your thoughts. That’s why the Lord said as a man thinketh in his heart. So he is. God has the ability to see what you’re thinking before you ever even do anything. So this spiritual autonomy I’m talking about is this perpetuated mental attitude of stability in your life, even though you may have to stand alone. It’s the act of being independent or self-directing. And it’s what the Christian life is all about. It’s got to be that way if you’re going to live the Christian life. Eventually, you’ve got to learn how to handle this. So we go through testing, people testing, system testing, all sorts of disaster tests, but spiritual autonomy means we have control of our life through these different tests. And the key to happiness in spiritual autonomy we saw in Psalm 119. We went through a lot of verses there, and if you want to get those transcriptions, if you’ll write to me, we’ll send you the transcriptions of everything that we did because we have a lot to cover today. But in Psalm 119, the Bible said, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. And that’s the key to spiritual autonomy is living a life free of unfilment. You know, stay out of sin. Rebound when you have to. Don’t get out of fellowship and stay out of fellowship. And then in verse 2 of 119, blessed are those who keep, that’s positive volition, who seek, that’s positive volition, who keep his testimony and seek him with their whole heart. And the key to that was 119 verse 11. I hid your word in my heart so I wouldn’t sin against you. So today, we’re going to move on to the second session in spiritual autonomy. Talking about when you live your life in spiritual autonomy, meaning not using other people to provide your happiness, there are certain promises you can depend on and you better get ready for this because this is exciting. The key is this, that in autonomy, God assigns ministering angels to watch over you and protect you. Did you hear that? God assigns ministering angels to watch over you and to protect you. Now, where would I get something like that? Psalm 91 11. He will give his angels charge concerning you to guard you in all of your ways. Now, why would he do that? Well, because you are his purchased possession. You have been bought and paid for with a price, and that price was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross when he identified with your sins, his spiritual death and eventually his physical death. And you are a purchased possession when you put your faith in him. So what God has, in essence, done for you is he’s given you a heavenly secret service detail. A heavenly secret service detail. You can’t see them. You don’t know they’re there. But they are there to guard you and watch over you. In 1 John 4, 4, you are of God, little children. and have overcome them because the one that is in you is greater than that one that is in the world. And that, of course, is the Holy Spirit. In Psalm 34, 7, the angel of the Lord, and that’s actually a reference to the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, before he ever came to this earth and became a man, the angel of the Lord camped round about those who fear him. and rescues them. Now, what does that mean? Fear him. The Hebrew word Yare, Y-A-W-R-A-Y is how it’s pronounced. Yare means to those who respect him or reverence him. He rescues them. The angel of the Lord. lord jesus christ and camps around those who fear him and rescues them in matthew 8 25 and 26 the disciples came to him and woke him up saying lord save us save us we’re going to die we’re perishing this is during the famous boat episode on the sea of galilee and he asked them he got up and woke him up from his sleep and he said why are you afraid O ye of little faith, which meant they in essence were short-time trusters. Then he arose, and he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. No need to call the Galilean Coast Guard. This was actually unbelievable even before the deadliest reality show even started. This was a bad storm. And the Lord Jesus Christ simply said, stop. And it came slick as glass. So he does rescue and protect as this verse guarantees us. So divine protection, here’s the principle I want you to learn. divine protection as well as divine provision is granted to those who reverence or respect the lord jesus christ and that happens to you by means of your personal relationship with him when you become a member of the family of god you are granted a royal family security detail now matthew 6 25-34 talks about how the lord provides for you he says in this passage therefore i tell you Don’t worry about your life, don’t be afraid. Don’t worry about what you’re going to eat or drink. Don’t worry about your body. Don’t worry about what you’re going to wear. He goes on to say, is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? And then the illustration of the birds, the writer wrote. Look at the birds in the air. They don’t sow and they don’t reap and they don’t put things away in barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than a bird? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? And why would you worry about your clothes? Look how the flowers of the field grow. They don’t labor. They don’t spin. And yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you of little faith? These are the same words Jesus uttered to those disciples in the middle of the fourth, twelfth storm in the Sea of Galilee, O ye of little faith. So don’t worry, verse 31, saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear? For the pagans, unbelievers, run after these things, and your Heavenly Father knows what you need. So you seek first his kingdom, his righteousness, and all of these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, don’t worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will worry about itself. Every day has enough trouble of its own. So what an amazing promise. As a member of the royal family of God, we are granted that royal family security detail to provide our every need. Your divine security detail, point two, provides necessary provisions for that you need to sustain your life so there’s no need for you to ever worry or be intimidated by any type of satanic opposition. When you stand alone, you don’t have to be afraid. Psalm 34, eight, how blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Blessed is a wonderful Hebrew word called, and share, and it means happiness. And share means happiness. So happiness belongs to the man who takes refuge in Christ. In Psalm 3410, those who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. There’s the same promise in the Old Testament that you just heard me read from Matthew 6. Positive volition, those who seek positive volition, those who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. In Psalm 9, verse 10, those who know your name Trust you. Trust is the word bakhtak, and it means to have confidence. In the Hebrew, bakhtak means to have confidence. Those who know your name have confidence in you because you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. Positive volition. And I will never leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13, 5, the very words that Lord Jesus Christ quoted. And that was given to Joshua by the Father, and it’s for us as well when Joshua went into the promised land. God told him, don’t worry, I won’t leave you, I won’t forsake you, and that’s a promise for us as well. So if we’re going to enjoy this type of divine provision, royal family, honor guard, secret service, here it is, provide for you every need, the key to enjoying all that is having some humility. The key to enjoying your divine protection and your divine provision is having some humility. A lot of people don’t understand that concept. It’s not taught very much in the church today. But Psalm 25, 9 said, “‘He leads the humble in justice,’ and he teaches the humble his way. Here’s a principle I want you to always remember. Humility is teachability. Humility is teachability. The opposite of humility is arrogance. Arrogant people can’t learn anything. You can’t teach them anything because they think they’re smarter than God. But if you have enough humility to listen, then the Father will lead you in the way of justice. So the power behind being spiritually autonomous in your life, spiritually independent, is to have some humility. So here is the humility mindset demonstrated for you. In Psalm 19, verse 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Let the words of my mouth, in other words, the things that I say, and the meditations of my heart and the things that I think be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. These are two areas of sin. Sins of the tongue and mental attitude sins. These are areas that believers fail in quite often. Sins of the tongue such as gossip, slander, malign, criticize, backbiting, and sins of the mind like worry, fear, agitation, anger, jealousy. That does not cut it with the Lord. A mature believer has learned how to use the 10 problem-solving devices. He’s learned how to have impersonal love for all mankind. He’s learned how to grace out even his enemies, and he’s never that sort of person. So he does let everything that he says come out of his mouth and everything he thinks come out of his heart be acceptable in the Lord’s eyes. All right? So this verse is an indication of a person who is occupied with Christ, and that’s problem-solving device number 10. Again, Psalm 19, 14 is an indication of a person being occupied with Christ. Psalm 19, verse 14. Okay? So, that’s problem solving device number 10, occupation with Christ. The autonomous believer, that’s you, is going to face different tests in his life. God’s gonna allow these tests to come into our lives, and the reason is so they can refine our lifestyle. And I will promise you this, as you begin to grow in grace, as you begin to use those 10 problem-solving devices, as you begin to rebound and stay filled with the Holy Spirit and operate on faith and operate on grace and have doctrinal orientation, Satan will take a note of you and he will try to stop your momentum. And this happens to all of us. He takes notice of our momentum in the spiritual life And so we must be willing to suit up, put on the armor of God, as Paul said in Ephesians 6. Get ready because Satan has a strategy against you. You must maintain your humility. It’s key. You know, the arrogant person is a self-justifying individual. He thinks he’s something he’s not. And he has unrealistic expectations for what he should have or not have. That’s not the believer’s life. That’s not the humility mindset. So the autonomous believer must have some humility. And on top of that, he must have some patience. Patience, that’s one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5.22 called long-suffering, the Greek word makrothumia. And there were three other words for patience in the Bible also. Patience with people, patience with circumstances, and God’s patience with us. So we have to have patience. We have to take our time. We have to wait on the Lord, let him handle it. Why do you say that, Rick? Well, listen to Psalm 27, 14. Wait on the Lord. There it is. Could it be any more plain? Wait on the Lord. One of the biggest mistakes you’ll make is being impetuous and getting ahead of God’s timing. You get it all jacked up in your mind, thinking you know what you should do, and the next thing you know, you’re out the door trying to do something. You’re wasting time, wasting money, because you got ahead of the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. means eliminate your fear how do you do that with spiritual confidence using the faith rest drill eliminate your fear so wait on the lord be of good courage and then he will give you strength in your heart again i say wait on the lord wow you must be patient in your life you must be patient you’re not going to reach spiritual maturity overnight When I became a new believer, it took me years to begin to learn the scripture and begin to apply the scriptures into my life. First thing I had to do was get under a well-qualified pastor that could teach me something and get away from people that wanted to play games, people that wanted to manipulate you with legalism, and get under a well-qualified pastor that’ll teach you something so you learn how to be autonomous and stand on your own. And then the Bible is very clear about waiting on the Lord in 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18. Don’t lose heart. Don’t get discouraged. Therefore, we do not lose heart, Paul said, even though the outward man is perishing, we’re getting old, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Here is a great principle I want you to remember. Your body will age and you will get old, but your soul never ages. Your body will age and get old, but your soul never ages. Once God created your soul, it never grows old. What is your soul? It’s your mentality. It’s your volition. It’s your consciousness and your self-consciousness. And you have a soul and you have a spirit, a dead human spirit. But when you’re born again, the Holy Spirit moves in and the human spirit is reborn. You have a spiritual birth, not a physical birth, a spiritual birth. So you are a body, a soul, and a spirit. Well, the body, guess what’s not going to make it? The body’s contaminated with sin. So it’s going to be perishable, go back into the dust. But God is going to give you a new body, an imperishable body, a resurrection body. And your soul will house in that body forever. your spirit will house in that body forever. And you will be a completed person like the Lord Jesus Christ in his resurrection body. So don’t faint about getting old. Your soul’s not getting old. That’s probably why you look in the mirror sometimes and you say, I can’t believe I look like I’m an old person, but inside I feel like I’m the same. It’s because your soul doesn’t get old. So don’t lose heart. Don’t be discouraged, Paul said. Even though the outward man is perishing, We’re getting old, arthritis is setting in, the inward man is renewed day by day. And listen, he goes on to say, the soul never ages for our light affliction, verse 17, 2 Corinthians 4, 17, for our light affliction, which is just for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we don’t look at the things which are seen, we look at the things that are not seen. Or the things which are seen are but temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. What does this mean? It means you’ve got to have a vision. You’ve got to have some insight and understanding from the word of God. And that way you don’t focus on your light affliction for the time. You look at the eternal things. Human solutions are no solutions. Divine solutions are the only solutions. That’s something we all have to remember about in our Christian life. So don’t worry about the time that you have on this earth. Redeem the time. The Bible tells you that, and here’s the key. The more you grow in grace, the more time God gives you to glorify Christ. The whole objective of you being here is to glorify Christ, to re-present Christ to your friends, to your family, and as you grow in grace, take in God’s Word, stay filled with the Holy Spirit, you will be given time to glorify God to the maximum. That’s the objective for every believer, to move from spiritual self-esteem, which happens when you first get saved, to spiritual autonomy, which is what I’m talking about, and then eventually to spiritual maturity. And that’s where you get maximum glorification of God. And in spiritual maturity, Listen carefully, when you reach spiritual maturity, you’re gonna be tested like never before. We call it evidence testing. It’s like Satan calls you to the witness stand and you’re there alone. Lord Jesus Christ went through evidence testing in Matthew 4 and he faced it. He defeated Satan by using scripture and you do the same thing. If you’re called to the witness stand through some sort of health or disaster testing or some sort of adversity, You stand on the promises of God’s word and you defeat Satan who seeks to intimidate you, who seeks to defeat you and discourage you by standing in the word of God by yourself, alone, being autonomous. It’s the only way you’ll ever reach spiritual maturity in your life. So these stages of Christian growth I’m talking about, spiritual self-esteem is the first stage. And this provides some suffering in your life, some sort of preventative suffering you’ll go through sometimes. I remember when I first got saved, I had to understand who I was and what I was. I had to understand what my spiritual gift was. I had to learn how the plan of God worked for my life. I didn’t understand the Christian life. No one taught me the mechanics of the Christian life. I did go to Bible college and I learned about the Bible, but sad to say in Bible college, no one taught me the mechanics to the spiritual life. No one taught me how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. No one taught me how to use a faithless drill. No one taught me about impersonal and personal love and the virtue that’s related to those subjects. No one taught me how to be occupied with Christ. That came through my pastor who taught that to me years after Bible college. So I have to come to spiritual self-esteem. We can’t stay babies all our life. And from there, we move into spiritual autonomy. And this is where we begin to get the momentum testing in our life. We get all sorts of tests to see if we can stand alone. And if we can pass those tests, then we move into spiritual maturity. But momentum testing is given by God for a couple of reasons. Number one, it gives you the opportunity to apply the doctrine you’ve learned. And number two, it accelerates your momentum when you go through this testing. I’ll give you some illustrations under momentum testing. Can you say no to your area of weakness from your own sin nature? Every one of us has a sin nature, we got it from Adam, and every one of us has a different area of weakness. Not everybody lusts for sex, not everybody lusts for money, not everybody lusts for power, not everybody lusts for different, I mean, people lust for different things. Can you say no to your particular lust pattern, the area of weakness in your life? That’s momentum testing. You’re never going to establish real spiritual momentum until you can say no to the flesh. Can you say no to the lure of the world, the cosmic system? 1 John 2, 15 and 16, don’t love the world and don’t love anything in the world, the Bible says. Can you say no to the world? The world offers you, you know, you’ll be happy if you win the lottery. You’ll be happy if you get this. You’ll be happy if you get that. If your happiness depends on what the cosmic system offers, you’re not spiritually mature. Can you say no to satanic distraction? Can you say no to disaster testing when it hits? Here’s one. Can you say no to people testing? Because people are easily led away from the protocol plan of God, easily led away by the word of God, but from the word of God by their friends, by people they fall in love with, people in life, and even people they hate. So unless you attain some spiritual adulthood, every time you fall in love, every time you get a new friend, the object of your friendship or love will control your life and your happiness. And I can tell you illustrations of that to the T. I can tell you people that used to go to church and they got married and don’t go anymore because the other one don’t like it, doesn’t like it, excuse me. So now we move to spiritual maturity, spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, eventually spiritual maturity and put evidence testing in that. When you go through the valley of momentum testing and there it equals the glorification of God to the maximum. That’s what you want to do. You want to glorify God to the maximum. So you have momentum and you have humility as a sign of spiritual autonomy. One final thing I want to bring to your mind, you have contentment. And this is simply problem-solving device number nine, which is called sharing the happiness of God. Spiritually content. It’s a wonderful thing. Because when you’re content, then God can bless you and pour things into your life that won’t distract you. My cup runneth over, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Remember those words? Contentment. In autonomy, spiritual autonomy, there is even a stronger and an increased type of contentment in your life. This gives you the capacity to live life, enjoy life, and have happiness. So the more content you are, the more God can pour into your life without distracting you from growing in grace and representing Jesus Christ through your life and through your circumstances. So contentment is another key to autonomy. Mental stability is a key issue in your spiritual life, for the spiritual life is a mental attitude produced by the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual life is identified with spiritual autonomy, standing alone, glorifying Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, by your own thoughts, actions, and decisions, not depending on other people to make you happy. I hope this has been clear. I hope you’ve learned something, and I hope you’re enjoying it. Thank you for listening, and if the Lord allows us, we’ll come back next week, same time, same place. We appreciate your prayer support. Until then, 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.
