Spiritual revival and renewal require individual sustained spiritual growth. In this episode, Rick Hughes teaches that national revival starts with individual believers learning, applying, and living God’s Word daily. Using Jonah’s story and biblical examples, Rick explains that true revival isn’t political—it’s spiritual renewal rooted in prayer, humility, and accurate understanding of God’s plan.
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 stick around. It won’t be long, only 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education and absolutely no manipulation because we’re not going to con you. We’re not going to ask you for money. We’re not going to try to solicit funds, sell you anything. We just want to give you something. We want to give you the information found in the Bible to try to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. If we can do that, then you can orient and adjust to the plan should you decide to do so. But I thank you for listening to the Flatline Radio Show. 21 years we’ve been broadcasting this radio show, and it’s been a wonderful, wonderful blessing in my life to be able to bring you this information. I remind you that our 800 number is not working right now. We changed telephone service and they got something mixed up and we’re not able to get 800 calls. We’re trying our best to get that back on the air, but you can always contact us through the website. That’s rickhughesministries.org. rickhughesministries.org. And there you can order our books. We have another new book coming out called Understanding Your Soul. Hopefully it’ll be out by Thanksgiving, and I think you may want to get that book. It’s going to be one of our best we’ve done yet. Okay, in my last radio broadcast, I made a statement to you that I hoped would resonate. I said this, there will never be a revival in America if believers do not learn how to pray. Again, there will never be a revival in America if believers don’t learn how to pray. I don’t know if you want a revival. I’d like to see a revival, but we need to identify what a revival is. The first revival that I actually preached, I conducted was in a small Baptist church in Leeds, Alabama, about 19, maybe 1970. That’s a long time ago. Every night I spoke giving an open invitation for people to come forward and receive Christ. I also was invited to host a revival in Gulfport, Mississippi, but the local pastor wanted to collect a love offering for me, and I refused to do that, so that didn’t go over very well because I don’t understand how you could invite people to come hear somebody preach the gospel and then try to ask them for money. So we didn’t do that one. But the first nationwide revival is taught in the book of Jonah in the Old Testament. It occurred in the town of Nineveh. You might remember that God directly told Jonah, go to Nineveh. In Jonah 1, verse 2, go to Nineveh and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me. However, dear Jonah refused to do that. He said, nope, I’m not going to do that. I don’t like those people. And instead, he boarded a boat bound for Tarshish, fleeing from the Lord’s direction. It appeared that he preferred to die rather than preach to the people in Nineveh. And actually, when the storm hit and things went bad and trying to figure out what was going on, Jonah said, look, in chapter 1, verse 12, just throw me forth over into the sea. I’m the problem. Then you might remember a great fish swallowed him, the Bible says, and he resided in the belly of that fish three days and three nights. Jonah 1, 17. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. This is what you call enforced humility. And it was enough to cause Jonah to confess his sins of disobedience. Listen to what he did in Jonah 2, 1 and 2. He confessed his sin while he was in the belly of the great fish. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly and said, I cried by reason of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and you heard my voice. Once back on dry land, how did he get back to dry land? Well, in Jonah 2.10, the Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. And then God spoke to Jonah a second time. and Jonah 3, 1 and 2. And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah a second time, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I tell you to do, I bid you. What was Jonah’s message? Well, His message was kind of frightening because it was the message that God told him, that the city would be defeated and overthrown in 40 days. They were all gonna die or be captured. And the response was immediate. Jonah chapter three, verses five through 10. So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he got up off his throne, and he laid his robe aside, and covered himself in a sackcloth, and he sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout all of Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles. and he said let neither man nor beast nor herd nor flock taste anything nor let them feed nor drink any water but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God hopefully he will turn everyone from his evil way and the violence that was in their hands Who can tell if God will turn and change his mind and turn away from his fierce anger that we do not perish? In verse 10 of Jonah chapter 3, God saw what they did, that they turned away from their evil ways, and he changed his mind about the evil that he had said he was going to do to them, and he did not do it. Now, you would think that would have encouraged Jonah, but actually it’s just the opposite. I mean, Jonah was sent there to preach the gospel, to hold a revival, to get the people to turn away from their sin and turn to God, but he wasn’t happy about it. It said in Jonah 4.2, he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was this not what I said when I was yet in my country? That’s why I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, You’re merciful, you’re slow to anger, and of great kindness and repentance thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it’s better for me to live, to die than to live. He’s actually asking God to kill him because these people all turned to the Lord. He didn’t care for him very much. He was actually full of self-pity, and he had to learn a very, very hard lesson. So God used a gourd and a little worm to teach Jonah the lesson. And the lesson is that the souls of men are much more valuable than a gourd. And Jonah 4.1, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattle? This incident that I just read to you, you should read the book of Jonah sometime. It’s the first recorded national revival in the biblical history. So please allow me to define what a revival actually is and what a revival is not. First, a revival is a spiritual awakening. It is not a social movement. Politics has nothing to do with a spiritual awakening. If you’ll think back about when our Lord Jesus Christ was walking on this earth, you might remember that Rome was in control of Israel. They were under the domination of the Roman army. And nowhere, we know how absolutely sick the Romans were, some of the weird things they did. But nowhere did you find the Lord Jesus Christ telling the disciples to preach against their sins, he told them, to lift me up, tell them about me, tell them who I am. The disciples’ job was not to clean up the devil’s world. The disciples’ job was to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, there have been a lot of high-profile evangelists in America within the last 100 years. A couple of names you may be familiar with are like Billy Graham and Billy Sunday. Both of these men conducted citywide crusades across the nation and led many people to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have organizations like Campus Crusade, Youth for Christ, Navigators, and they reached into high schools and colleges as well as the military with much success. I myself spoke to hundreds and hundreds of students in both public and private schools all the way from 1969 to the year 2022. Many of those that I spoke to asked to be saved. The question that I want to ask you is where did all these new believers end up? Did they wind up having a national impact and bring America back to seeking to serve God? A new Christian has much to learn in order to understand God’s will, individually and nationally. That’s why most evangelists seek to connect the new convert with a local church. I believe the local church is in fact the classroom for the Christian. The instructor of that classroom is the pastor teacher, and the textbook is the Holy Bible. As in any classroom, academic discipline must be considered, must be held. But never forget that in school you’re tested on what you learn or you didn’t learn. I remember a few tests I took, I tried to cheat my way through it and that didn’t work. God does the same thing. He’s going to test you to see if you believed and applied what you learned when your pastor stood in the pulpit and taught you the Word of God. In 1 Peter 4.12, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which is to try you, as though something strange had happened unto you. In other words, you’re going to be tested. God’s going to put you through a fiery test to determine if you learned how to apply his word to your situation. In 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there has no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful that he will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you’re able, but will with a temptation also make a way of escape that you’ll be able to bear it. When I got saved in 1968, actually 1967, when I got saved I was given a small pocket New Testament and I was told to read the book of John and of course I did that. I got into a good local church where the pastor taught the Bible, but I was never able to completely sort things out. What exactly was I to believe and what exactly was I to do? So I enrolled in Bible college, but still no one taught me the mechanics to the Christian life. I learned about the Bible, I learned all the books of the Bible, who wrote them, what time of the year they were written, what they were about, but nobody gave me the mechanics to the Christian life. It was almost two years after my conversion before I met the pastor who would teach me the things I needed to understand in order to have an effective life in ministry. And it may be that way with you too. Maybe you’ve been a Christian a long time and you’ve been in your church a long time. But you’ve heard me talk about spiritual mechanics and you’ve never heard that before. You’ve learned things you never learned before by listening to this radio show. And I thank God for your hunger and for your desire to have a spiritual awakening in this country A revival that has lasting spiritual impact must start with learning. That’s where it has to start. So if we had people that get saved, like through Billy Graham Crusade or through Billy Sunday Crusade or through Campus Crusade or Young Life or Navigator, people get saved, the first thing they have to do is learn something. You know, the very reason the nation is destroyed like us, God told Hosea 4, 6 to tell the people this, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. You hear that? Not because they’re doing nasty things, but lack of knowledge. Because you rejected knowledge, I will reject you, and you will never longer be a priest or nation to me because you forgot the laws of your God, and I’m going to forget your children as well. So never forget that in Jeremiah 9, 24, God said he’s looking for those who know him and understand him. That takes some knowledge. You may know God, but you might not understand the God you know. The problem with that is you wind up doing all the right things in all the wrong way. And that’s all manifested at the judgment seat of Christ when you show up with a big pile of wood, hay, and stubble. So don’t forget that. He’s looking for those people that understand him If you try to humanize God, if you try to make him think and act like you do, that’s a terrible mistake. The first thing a new Christian has to do is he has to learn how to think differently. You can read about that in Romans 12, 1 through 3, where it says, stop thinking in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think, but think in terms of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. Also, Philippians 2, 5 tells us to let this mind that was in Christ Jesus be in us, which technically means we’re to think divine viewpoint. We’re to think like Christ thought. And that means we have to change our way of thinking. Arrogance is the big enemy. Stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should. That means quit justifying your sin. Quit trying to act like it’s okay. You have to admit what it is and confess it to God. That’s the first thing you have to learn. You have to learn how to deal with your sin. In Caucasian, what does that mean? Fixing beliefs in your mind through repetition, repetition, repetition. In Caucasian, it requires you listening, you learning, and then you applying what you learn. You listen, you learn, you apply. You can’t learn anything if you sleep through church, I promise you. You need to be in church with a Bible and a notebook, taking notes down and reading those notes when you get home. Also in Ezekiel 33, 31, listen to this word. They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear your words. Now listen, here it comes. They won’t do them, for with their mouth they show much love, but with their heart go after after their own covetousness. Now there’s a picture of somebody that’s playing a game. Learning how to execute the Christian life is the first step towards the national revival, something I want desperately and something you want desperately too. I want people to get saved and to come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior, and I want people that are Christians, and in fact, people that already know Christ, to have this new hunger to learn God’s Word, a renewed hunger in their life. Throughout the New Testament, We are told to study to show ourselves approved of God. A workman is needed not to be ashamed. 2 Timothy 2.15 Learning how to execute Christian life is critical. Those people that use their volition to reject the mechanics of true worship, so God gave them the consequences of their spiritual unfaithfulness in Hosea chapter 4. They rejected God’s word, they didn’t want to learn anything, so God rejected them due to, even the priests were ignorant of God’s laws. You can be approved and you can be disapproved. Let me read it again, 2 Timothy 2.15. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, but rightly dividing the word of truth. It’s critical that you understand that. The first thing necessary for a lasting spiritual awakening is to have a desire to lift up and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. We must see individuals as someone that God loves, someone He sent His Son to pay for their sins. Their race or their politics is not an issue. It’s not the issue. When you’re seeking to present the gospel, never talk about politics. I can assure you the disciples never talked politics about Rome and what Rome was doing. They talked about Jesus Christ and lifted him up. Of course, you may have an individual not interested in that gospel. He would rather get into a political discourse with you. And if that’s the case, here’s my suggestion. Bid them farewell and move on down the road. You’re wasting your time talking to them. But a true revival, a true revival that we’re willing to see happen in this nation will include many unbelievers coming to the Lord Jesus Christ to receive forgiveness. And of course, if that happens, Satan’s going to try to confuse the issue. He’ll give a counterfeit gospel, and he’ll use well-meaning Christians who wind up misrepresenting God and his free grace offerings. That happens every day, even today, through social media that I see on things like Facebook or Instagram. I see preachers giving a false gospel, telling you things that you must do to be saved. The only thing you have to do to be saved is exactly what Paul told the Roman jailer in Acts 16, 31. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And the household. A true revival will result in many individuals coming to Christ. On the other hand, I want to introduce you to a term called spiritual renewal. Not a revival, but a spiritual renewal. And that’s believers getting a renewed interest in the scriptures. In order for there to be a national change in America, in the direction that we’re headed, there must be a revival and a renewal. I’m sorry to say there appears to be very little spiritual renewal in America. There does seem to be some sort of interest in spiritual issues beginning on how do I get saved, but Satan has done a good job of infiltrating the message with much false doctrine. I hear pastors telling folks to repent of their sins, for example. Unfortunately, that’s not how you get saved, by changing your life and repenting of your sins. Romans 5, 1 and 2 tells a different story. Therefore, being justified by faith, not repentance, but by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom also we have access by faith unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. By faith, by faith. For by grace are you saved through faith, the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone would brag about it. All of our sins were paid for on the cross, every last one of them. He took our place. He received our punishment. You will not be judged for your sins. That’s not why people go to hell, because they’re sinners. People go to hell because they reject Jesus Christ as Savior. Listen to John 3.18. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not, that’s reject Christ as Savior, is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. That’s pretty plain, isn’t it? National revival starts with a maximum number of individuals coming to believe that Jesus is God’s uniquely born son, that he is the one who makes us righteous to the point of salvation, not because we promise to turn our back on sin and behave in the future. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, this is about the Lord Jesus Christ, for he has made him to be sin for us, the one that knew no sin, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him or through him, not by repenting, not by doing something crazy, but by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 12, 32, and if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me. 1 Corinthians 1, 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolish, but unto us which are saved is the power of God. The most powerful thing in the world is the story of the Lord Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that he offers through the means of the cross. He went to that cross. He took your place, my place, died in our place, resurrected from the dead, walked out of the grave and walked into heaven. And he’s alive now waiting the Lord’s Father’s order to come back and get us. That’ll happen soon, I promise you. Revival in America may be possible if witnesses give the correct information. But renewal in America is going to be different. It’s going to require much more than just believing. Believing is how you get saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But growing requires a daily, daily, daily decision. If you can’t get with it that way, if you can’t start studying and growing on a daily basis, then you’re never going to have a spiritual renewal. The key is if my people, when they’re called by my name, will humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways and seek my face, then I’ll hear their prayer and heal their land. That’s believers. God is wanting you to get a hunger to learn about him. God is wanting you to have an insatiable hunger in your soul, a thirst in your soul to learn all you can about God and his word. And yet you have kids, you have a job, you have a hobby. You don’t even listen to the Bible teach. Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. You have a source of information in front of you and you won’t even take time to do it because you’re too busy. And yet when the bottom falls out, when things go bad, you’re going to become running to God then, oh God, oh God, save me. I’m having a rough time. Oh God, pull a genie out of the eight bottle and save me. Until you come to the place where you’re hungry to grow, hungry to understand. I’ve only run across probably a couple of hands full of people like this in my lifetime and so many years of traveling. People that have a hunger for God’s word. They hear it taught, it rings a bell. Just like this radio show. Maybe it rang a bell with you. Maybe you said, this is the first time I’ve ever heard anybody teach like this. This is the first time I’ve ever heard these things explained to me. I want to know more. And I get letters every day from people saying, I want to know more. Can you send me one of your books? Can you send me something to study? Can you tell me how to grow? Can you tell me where I can find a great pastor? Unfortunately, there’s not a great pastor in every city that I know about. But revival in America could be possible if witnesses like you give correct information, gospel information, and don’t water it down, don’t mix it up. But renewal, not revival, renewal in America is going to require much, much more. Again, salvation is a one-time decision, but spiritual renewal is a daily decision. For spiritual renewal, the protocol plan of God must be learned It must be learned and it must be followed. If that were to happen, then there’s no telling how much blessing God would pour out over our nation. It’s there, it’s there for you if you want to learn it. If you want to grow, you got to grow. The Bible says grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You can answer that question. Are you growing spiritually or are you just treading water? Sure, you’re saved. Sure, you’ve accepted Christ as your Savior. But are you growing? What do you know about God’s plan? Do you understand the protocol plan of God? Do you understand the 10 problem-solving devices that make up the flatline in your soul? Is that you? Or are you so busy doing other things that you’re grateful you got a ticket out of hell, you’re going to heaven, that’s for sure, but you don’t have time for the rest of it? That’s really a shame. Please, I beg of you, we must have spiritual renewal. We must have Christians that are hungry to learn God’s word. If that’s you, contact me immediately. Get on to my website, rickhughesministries.org. Take a look at those books that we offer. We can provide you with tons of information and it’s all free. If you don’t have a good pastor, write me a letter through the website and we’ll tell you where there’s a pastor where you can learn and grow. Maybe not face to face, maybe you might have to do it over the internet, There are a lot of great pastors teaching a lot of great doctrine if you’ll just take the time to do it. So please, I beg you, renew your spiritual life. We used to call that come forward and rededicate your life to the Lord. I’m not asking you to come forward and rededicate your life. I’m just asking you to get a renewal, a hunger to grow, to learn, to apply God’s Word in your life. Why? So that you will be able to represent Jesus Christ to your nation, to your friends, to your family. That’s what it’s all about. Your growth allows you to represent Jesus Christ so that when people see you, then they in fact see Christ. Does that make sense? Oh, I sure hope so. Again, rickhughesministries.org. Tons of material there for you to study and learn. Our new book coming out real soon called Understanding Your Soul. You’ll be able to get that book. It’s free of charge like all our material. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being with me today. It’s my prayer that you’ll come back next week when we show back up. My voice is a little raspy. You just have to put up with that. But we’re doing okay. We’re hanging in there. So thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your encouragement. And may God get all the glory for everything that you and I both do. Okay? See you next week.
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Thank you.
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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.
