Spiritual Maturity – Part 1
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 599 aired on February 19, 2017
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I am your host Rick Hughes and for the next
few minutes I’d like to invite you to stay with me, a time of motivation, some inspiration, some
education, all done without any type of manipulation. We don’t ask you for money. We’re here to
give you some information my prayer is will help you verify and identify God’s plan for your
life. That’s my job, to be accurate, to get it right, not some type of useless human speculation but
to give you the accurate information from the Bible, the Word of God, the canon of Scripture. I
know the last thing you need to hear is another show about the Bible, but this is a little different.
So if you’ll hang with me, listen to me, I think you’ll learn something and if you learn
something, you can apply it into your life. The FLOT line is your main line of resistance. It’s
your forward line of troops. It’s you learning 10 unique problem-solving devices found in the
Word of God. When you learn these 10 problem-solving devices and use them, or what we say
deploy them, then you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they become the inside
source of stress. That’s why we always say, adversity is inevitable and stress is optional.
Adversity is what happens to you in life, you can’t control it, but stress you can control. You do
not have to worry, you do not have to be afraid, you do not have to be bitter, you do not have to
live in guilt. These are all self-induced and quite frankly, a lot of the adversity we create
ourselves by mismanaging our money or mismanaging our health or mismanaging our personal
relationships with other people. We create a lot of the adversity, but thank goodness God has
given us a supernatural life, a way to live that’s unbelievable. It’s simply called the Christian life.
I know a lot of Christians are pretty unbelievable, that’s for sure, because they’re weird. I’m not
talking about this. I am talking about this supernatural life that God gives you that is empowered
by two things. It is empowered by His Word as you learn it, live it, and use it and empowered by
the Holy Spirit as He lives inside of you and guides you and teaches you and produces in you
what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit. The two things necessary to live the supernatural life is
God the Holy Spirit and God’s Word assuming that you have indeed accepted Jesus Christ as
your Savior. You know there’s only one way to God. Jesus Christ Himself said,
“I am the way,
the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father but by Me”
(John 14:6). I’m aware that
Hollywood today mocks this. There are a lot of people that make fun of someone talking about
being saved or someone talking about being born again and they try to marginalize this whole
thing so they don’t feel guilty and they don’t have to think about this, but it is in the Bible. It is
real. The Word of God is real and those who mock it or mimic it will learn one day the hard way
that you do not mock God. The Bible says clearly,
“God will not be mocked”
(Galatians 6:7).
Just because they don’t evaporate the day they say it doesn’t mean they’re getting away with it.
You keep this in mind too, God will not be mocked in your life, nor in my life. He expects
certain reverence. He expects certain things. People make fun of politicians whether it’s the
current president, the current administration, or the past. They make fun of them, get on
599-Spiritual-Maturity-p1-transcript..pdf
television, talk about how weird they are, run them down. The same people will also make fun of
God and anyone who professes to believe in Christ as one of those Bible thumping, born-again
type Christians, one of those weirdos. Another attempt to demonize you, marginalize you, shut
you down. Don’t pay any attention to this. They’re the ones that will be in trouble, not you. If you
just do what the Bible says,
“Grow in the grace and in the knowledge of your Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ”
(2 Peter 3:18), you can be used by God. You can be used as an anchor in this
generation, as a pivot to hold this nation together. You must understand what the Bible talks
about. Last week we talked about the term spirituality. What does it mean to be a spiritual
Christian?
If you are filled with God the Holy Spirit you are a spiritual Christian.
If you are
under control of your sin nature, you are a carnal Christian. When you confess any known sin in
your life you are rebounding or using problem-solving device #1 on the FLOT line of your soul.
When you rebound as per 1 John 1:9,
“If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive
us,”
you are filled with the Holy Spirit. When you sin, you quench and grieve the Holy Spirit.
Of course people say, “I can’t remember every sin that I did.” However the Bible says,
“If we
confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all wrongdoing,”
even the
ones you might not remember. Let’s get this right.
You cannot be a mature believer unless you
are a spiritual believer. Spirituality is essential to become a mature believer.
Spirituality is
related to the filling of the Holy Spirit and that’s an absolute concept.
Right now as you’re
listening to me, you are either spiritual or carnal. If you’re spiritual, there’s no unconfessed sin in
your life. If you’re carnal, there is unconfessed sin in your life.
Maturity is related to the
content of the Word of God in your soul, so it’s relative.
Some people may be more mature
than others but no one can be more spiritual than another one.
I cannot be more spiritual
than you, neither can you be more spiritual than I. I can be more mature than you and you
can be more mature than me related to the content of God’s Word in our soul.
Listen to
Hebrews 5:11-14 as we talk about becoming a spiritually mature believer. The writer of Hebrews
had been trying to explain how the Lord Jesus Christ is our great high priest and apparently there
was a dumbfounded look on their faces. He felt the recipients would not understand this
advanced Bible doctrine that he was teaching them so he backed up and punted, shall we say.
This is what he wrote,
“We have much to say and it’s difficult to explain since you have become
sluggish in your hearing. For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need to
relearn the basics.”
In other words, the rate of forgetting had exceeded the rate of learning. He
said,
“You’ve gone back to needing milk and not solid food.”
The milk drinker here is
inexperienced in the message of righteousness, God’s basic character attribute that He must be
satisfied. You see, until the righteousness of God is satisfied, the justice of God must judge you
and you don’t know this sometimes. People think they can satisfy God’s righteousness, they can
equal God’s righteousness by being good or doing good things and that’s not true. The Bible says,
“All of our righteousness is like a filthy rag”
(Isaiah 64:6). He said, “You’ve gone back to
needing milk. You don’t need solid food. You’re a milk drinker, you’re inexperienced.”
“Solid
food is for the mature believer who can ascertain the difference between good and evil,”
the
599-Spiritual-Maturity-p1-transcript..pdf
writer said. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever grown weary of playing the game called
church? Have you grown weary of trying to stay pumped up for Jesus and only playing the role
in your life, you know, acting like you’re really on fire for God? You go to church and
everybody’s on fire for God and they’re all saying, “Hallelujah brother. Praise the Lord brother.
Amen brother.” Do you find all this stuff kind of phony? Have you ever wondered just what all
this stuff really means? You know, somebody says, “Why don’t you just let go and let God in?”
Okay, “Let go, let God in” now tell me exactly what are the mechanics for doing this? They may
say something like, “Well, just turn it over to the Lord.” Okay, tell me how to turn it over to the
Lord. “Well, just pray about it.” Okay, how do I pray about it? They don’t know. They have all
these clichés, all these terms, all this role model stuff, trying to act spiritual, sound spiritual, look
holy. Do you ever feel that you’re not really as mature as some of these people in your church?
Maybe they’re not the mature believers you think they are. You know, if someone knows all the
sports teams like the players and the stats and the scores, that’s very interesting but if they can’t
find the book of Lamentations after the book of Jeremiah, then they don’t know the score of the
last game. In other words they know their favorite college football team beat this team by this
much but they don’t know where to find the verse. It’s a matter of priorities. That’s what the
whole Christian life is about, priorities. It’s a matter of you setting the priorities in your life so
that you fulfill the plan of God, so that when you check out of here, you don’t check into heaven
hearing Him saying, “Well, where were you?” You want to hear,
“Well done My good and
faithful servant.”
Academic discipline is necessary if it’s going to be a priority in your life.
Academic discipline was a real priority for my pastor. He demanded concentration and pounded
me with repetition not unlike some of these famous football coaches like Paul Bear Bryant who I
played for in the 60’s or even coach Nick Saban at Alabama today or other great coaches, people
that produce a lot of winners, people that produce a lot of coaches that get their start under these
people. My pastor produced a lot of top-quality pastors that are in the pulpit today. They came
out under his ministry because a priority for him was academic discipline.
If you want to be a
spiritually mature believer, you have to remember that your spiritual life was not designed
to depend on someone else for guidance.
You must learn how to deal with every problem you
face, every adversity, even the prosperity. You have to be able to handle all of them without
leaning on someone else. If you’re going to be a spiritually mature Christian, and that’s a question
I have to ask you, are you a mature believer? You know, in your humility you’d say, “Well no,
nobody is really a mature believer. We all are trying brother. We’re all growing brother.” Well I
don’t know about this. This writer of Hebrews said, “You’ve been a Christian a long time now.
You ought to be teaching others, but you’re not.” There is a time in your life, how many years
have you been saved? Have you known Christ for 20 years, 30 years, and yet you still are not a
mature believer? You still don’t know your way around the Bible? You still couldn’t quote certain
books of the Bible or find them? You still do not know the essence of God? You still haven’t
learned these 10 unique problem-solving devices?
Listen, spiritual maturity occurs in three
stages. It starts with spiritual self-esteem where you develop self-confidence as a believer
599-Spiritual-Maturity-p1-transcript..pdf
and then progresses into spiritual autonomy where you have independence and then
spiritual maturity. This is what God wants you to do.
I had to learn this as a young believer. I
had to quit depending on other people to tell me how to live the Christian life. I had to get under
a well-qualified pastor, study God’s Word, learn God’s Word and make these decisions for myself
because without spiritual self-esteem, you are going to be manipulated by other people. After
salvation we usually spend a certain amount of time trying to figure out what’s next. It took me
almost a year. I was on an emotional high for like a year, but I kept falling and I kept messing up
and I kept making mistakes spiritually and I kept being frustrated with myself thinking, “I
thought I was a Christian, why do I think this way? Why do I want to do it this way?” We may
even get into a good church or sometimes we get into a good circus, it depends, and we don’t
establish consistent momentum. There’s no growth. We don’t grow to spiritual self-esteem. You
know, this means hear God’s Word and keep God’s Word consistently and develop some self-
confidence and independence. What am I hearing? What am I being fed? How fast am I
growing? These are the questions you should ask yourself. I mean, are you growing on an hour a
week? You’re going 30 minutes on Sunday morning, 30 minutes on Sunday night, and you’re
growing to be a mature believer? You’re kidding yourself. Nobody can grow on an hour a week.
You say, “Well, but I do my daily devotions for the Lord.” Well good, what, a 15 minute
devotion in the morning? Listen, the Bible is a textbook, it was designed to be taught to you, not
you read some daily devotion, get a little good thought for the day and off you go to serve Jesus.
That’s not being a mature believer. A believer must grow, the Word of God must take root in your
soul. You must develop spiritual self-esteem and know the problem-solving devices of God, His
Word. Use His Word effectively so that you can have some spiritual skills in your life.
Once the
Word of God starts taking root in your soul, once it starts circulating in your mind and you
start thinking about it, you change the way you think, you begin to think with the mind of
Christ, you develop new norms and standards, not the old human norms and standards.
Things will quit being fuzzy and come into focus in your life and you will begin to see God’s
plan for you open up and develop.
With spiritual self-esteem you can also have some
contentment and this is an indication of your capacity for life. You’re not looking to win the
lottery. You’re not looking to make a fortune. You’re looking to serve God. Paul said,
“Everything I’ve done, I count it all as dung except for the excellency of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord”
(Philippians 3:8). Contentment like this, even in the middle of unfair circumstances like
he was facing where people were trying to destroy his effectiveness, only comes from spiritual
self-esteem, only through this. You must turn into a professional, not a child. You must be a
professional Christian, a spiritually quiet professional as a believer in Jesus Christ so that your
impact as a Christian can take place among other believers who don’t have the information. You
see, once you become a spiritually self-esteemed believer, you’ve got spiritual strength and you
can begin to execute the plan of God by executing the mechanics. What’s the very first mechanic
you have to execute? The first one should be rebound, you should learn how to rebound your sin,
mechanic number one. Mechanic number two, you know how to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
599-Spiritual-Maturity-p1-transcript..pdf
Every time I rebound, I’m filled with the Holy Spirit. Mechanic number three, learning how to
use the faith-rest drill. Learning how to have grace orientation, learning how to have doctrinal
orientation, these are all part of the FLOT line on your soul. Figuring out what your personal
sense of destiny is, these things all come as you grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
As you have the courage to advance, you have self-assurance. Your
courage and your poise will be marked by composure and that’s self-assurance.
Yes you
need to have humility. If you don’t have some humility, you can’t learn anything.
Once we
develop this spiritual self-esteem in our lives, then we become meaningful people. We have
a purpose and definition. We have divine viewpoint, not human viewpoint, and this gives us
some spiritual common sense.
What is spiritual common sense? Well, it’s doctrinal orientation,
it’s taking the Word of God that you’ve learned and applying it to the situation you find yourself
in. It’s not flipping a coin and saying, “Heads I do this, tails I do that.” That’s not common sense.
That’s depending on the luck of the draw. Your priorities must be staying filled with the Holy
Spirit, taking in God’s Word every day under a well-qualified pastor I might say, every day. You
did hear that, every day, not once a week. And learning the protocol plan of God and spiritual
skills.
If you’re a believer and you have spiritual self-esteem then you can reach a personal
sense of destiny and that’s a great problem-solving device.
It might not be fully developed but
you’ll get there. You’re going to be vulnerable to what all of us are vulnerable to, sins of
arrogance. I know, when I started learning God’s Word I was very vulnerable to this because I
wanted to straighten everybody out. I would see all the goofy stuff and I didn’t buy into it and I
wanted to straighten people out. They weren’t interested in being straightened out. They thought I
was the goofy one and I probably still am the goofy one, but we become vulnerable to this
arrogance because we get fueled by our emotions. Then we fail and if we don’t pick ourselves up
from failing, then we’re done as believers. We can just go sit in the corner and cry about it.
When we develop spiritual self-esteem, when we develop some spiritual common sense, it
frees us up from the spiritual bullies in the church. We’re not distracted and we’re not
depending on other people.
You know, as a believer there are some risk factors for us. One of
them in fact is our own arrogance, our own arrogance complex that we have in our soul where
we justify what’s wrong and we deceive ourselves into thinking we are right. You can get totally
absorbed with it, these arrogance skills of self-justification, self-deception, self-absorption, they
will destroy you if you allow them. We are very, very vulnerable to emotions as a criteria for the
way we are spiritually, as if “I feel good today so I’m close to God.” “I don’t feel good today so
I’m not close to God.” The Christian life doesn’t roll around on emotions.
Emotions are an
appreciator. They are a wonderful thing that God gave you, but they’re not how you
determine spirituality.
If you get around someone that’s very high emotionally for Jesus and
they look like Jesus and they talk like Jesus and they’re high five-ing you for Jesus, this doesn’t
mean they are a mature believer. It means they live by their emotions.
Spiritual self-esteem is
the first step along the road to spiritual maturity and then you come to spiritual autonomy.
1 Timothy 6:6-8 says,
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing
599-Spiritual-Maturity-p1-transcript..pdf
into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out of this world. Having food and clothing,
with these we should be content.”
Spiritual autonomy is contentment with what God gives
you. It is the capacity to enjoy what God gives you.
In Philippians 4:11 Paul said,
“Not that I
speak in regards to need, for I’ve learned in whatever state I am to be content.”
This is the key to
capacity for life. Without contentment you have no capacity.
Contentment is the key and when
you learn God’s Word and develop some spiritual self-esteem, you can actually be content
or be patient as God’s plan unfolds for you.
Spiritual autonomy means that you have a
perpetual mental stability and that’s the key to advancing spiritually in your life. It’s your ability
to think about God’s Word, to cycle God’s Word through your soul when you’re under pressure so
you can have some courage. Your mental stability by standing on the Word of God and using the
faith-rest drill is insulation against any sort of psychoses or neuroses or any sort of psychotic
tendencies. It will stabilize you.
Your mind will be stabilized and you won’t be hurt by those
that are close to you and you won’t be threatened by those that hate you and you will be
oriented to God’s grace if you have spiritual autonomy.
Do you know your limits? Do you
know these? You’re not threatened by superficial nonsense are you? You do have personal
control of your own life don’t you? You don’t let other people control it for you. You’re not
possessive are you, unless authority calls for it? Spiritual autonomy, mentally stable, standing on
your own two feet, not running to the preacher every time the doors open, asking him what you
should do. Then spiritual maturity, becoming a winner believer, becoming an invisible hero,
using all of your spiritual skills and having a maximum impact on human history, going through
evidence testing in your life.
Spiritual maturity is the divine objective for all believers.
That’s
the Commander’s intent found in the Bible, for you to become a mature believer and be totally
independent of any form of counseling or human encouragement. You always need a pastor to
teach you and feed you God’s Word, as I do. We’re all sheep and we have to have a pastor. We
don’t need a shoulder to lean on or a good buddy to be our counselor. The Bible does not
authorize this. When we grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
we’re members of the royal family of God and we faithfully execute God’s plan for our life. We
grow to be invisible heroes because of the impact we will have as a stabilizing force within the
client nation. God wants you to be the anchor, the rock that holds this nation together. Remember
this verse?
“If My people that are called by My name will humble themselves and turn from their
wicked ways and seek My face”
(2 Chronicles 7:14). “My people,” “My name,” it’s the direction
we have to go. You can glorify God to the maximum because God is able to pour out great
blessing in your life and it won’t distract you. You won’t turn away and follow the fame and
fortune. You can glorify God by passing evidence testing and being a witness in the Angelic
Conflict. Spiritual maturity, growing in grace represents maximum spiritual growth and you
begin to take on the identity of Christ and glorify Christ. You re-present Christ to your friends, to
your community, to your family. Remember spirituality and maturity are different. Spirituality,
you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Maturity is how much of the Word of God you have learned
and are applying in your life. This is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for listening