Join host Rick Hughes on this enlightening episode of The Flatline as he delves into the ten unique problem-solving devices vital for Christian living. From understanding the role of confession and the filling of the Holy Spirit to adopting a faith-rest drill, this episode provides a comprehensive guide to addressing life’s spiritual challenges. Rick shares the wisdom taught by his pastor and offers practical advice on maintaining spiritual stability amidst adversity, exploring the critical aspects of grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, and an unwavering personal sense of destiny.
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 i’m your host rick hughes and for the next few minutes stick around with me okay just a short time of motivation some inspiration some education
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And no manipulation, no con games, not trying to get money, not trying to solicit support. We’re just trying to give you accurate information that will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life. The Flatline is all about learning God’s tremendous problem-solving devices. We’ve identified them as 10 unique problem-solving devices which form a main line of resistance in your soul that can stop the outside source of adversity before it ever becomes the inside source of stress. Now, this was taught to me by my pastor years ago. This is not something unique that I came up with. He taught it to me, and I’m reteaching it to you. But the first problem-solving device is rebound, where we confess our sin to God. It solves the problem of sin and failure. 1 John 1-9 tells us if we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us. The second problem-solving device is the problem of the old sin nature, and we can overcome that by the filling of the Holy Spirit. which is given when you rebound, you’re filled with the Spirit. The third problem-solving device is a faith-rest drill, which is standing on the promises of God. Then we have grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, personal sense of destiny, personal love for God, impersonal love for others, sharing the happiness of God and occupation with Christ. If this is new to you, we have a book called Christian Problem Solving we’d be glad to send to you free. All 10 of these are taught on various radio shows and we have all of the documentation. All the transcripts in one book form for you. If you want it, just write to us through the website, Christian Problem Solving. That’s rick at rickhughesministries.org. If you go to rickhughesministries.org, you can see everything right there, as well as listen to some various messages given in local churches. I’m not Richard Hughes. There’s a man on the Internet named Richard Hughes who has a ministry. We’re not the same people. I am rickhughesministries.org, not Richard Hughes Ministries. That’s a different guy. So please remember that if you try to contact us. He’s in Georgia. I’m in Alabama. Sure, he’s a great man of God, a wonderful individual, but we’re not the same people. But anyhow, we are very grateful for you listening. We do our podcast as well. We’re getting up close to 800,000 podcasts now. And they’re being heard all over the world. And you can listen to these shows on Apple iPod or Spotify or Anchor or Breaker, any of those podcast platforms. And just go in there and type in The Flatline and you’ll find us. Also, we have new books coming out. We have the new Crash Course in Christianity book is out. The Practicing Your Christianity book is out. The new transcripts for 2018-2019 are out. The new promise book is out. These are all available to you free of charge if you want them. So please go to the website. Contact us that way if you have a question. Send us a note to rick at rickhughesministries.org or you can call us at 800-831-0718. On our last radio show, we started talking about shifting sands, what’s happening in this country, how it’s going to be affecting you very soon. We went to Paul’s documentation to 1 Corinthians where he talked to them about what was going on. And he told those people in Corinth concerning their local church that they were to be steadfast and movable and abounding in the work of the Lord. And I ask you a question about what is the work of the Lord? What does that mean? He went on to say, knowing then that your labor will not be in vain, but in the Lord. In the Lord is a prepositional phrase, in the Lord. That’s the power source. Your power source in the Lord. Your power source is the filling of the Holy Spirit which comes through rebound. Problem solving device number one, problem solving device number two. When you rebound, you’re filled with the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ works in and through your life. That’s a wonderful thing to be indwelled by the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory, the Bible says. So we are to be steadfast and movable, abounding in the work of the Lord. Again, he told them in 1 Corinthians 16, watch and stand fast in the faith, in the faith. One was in the Lord, one was in the faith. And then another one says in James 5, 8, James wrote, be patient and stand firm. And in 2 Corinthians 1, 24, stand firm in your faith, stand firm in your faith. All these mandates to stand firm, be steadfast, be immovable, don’t give in, be abounding in the work of the Lord. What’s going on? What’s this all about? Well, it’s about a local church that is being invaded by human viewpoint thinking. They’re in the middle of the worst part of the town. In Corinth, there’s all kind of weird stuff going on in Corinth, all kind of problems from the Temple of Aphrodite, the Greek culture, all the way to the Temple of Apollos, even to the Jewish synagogues in town. all trying to pull people out of the local church at Corinth that Paul had established. And Paul got some information concerning that church from Chloe, C-H-L-O-E, that the church had begun to develop factions. So he wrote back to inspire these people to stick with it, be firm, and don’t go wandering astray, to remain faithful to the Lord, to what he taught them concerning the Lord’s will for their life. He didn’t want them to compromise their behavior. So when you talk about the work of the Lord, we got to showing you that this was your spiritual gift. What God wants you to do, why God called you, why God saved you, he gave you a spiritual gift. I don’t know what your spiritual gift is, but the unique thing about the Christian life is to discover what your spiritual gift is. In my ministry, I could not survive if I did not have people with various spiritual gifts. I’m an evangelist. That’s a spiritual gift God gave me. I didn’t request it. I didn’t ask for it. It’s just what happened when I got saved. But in order for me to function as an evangelist, I need people with the gift of helps, people with the gift of administration, even people with the gift of giving, which is a legitimate spiritual gift. and the Lord provides. So the source of spiritual gifts is from the Lord Jesus Christ himself, Ephesians 4, 7. To each one of us, this grace has been given according to the measure of the spiritual gift from Christ. He gives it to you through the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12, 11. But one… And the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually, just as He wills. So now let’s talk about you. You have a spiritual gift. You in California, you in Maine, you in Texas, you in Tennessee, you in wherever you may be, you have a spiritual gift. Do you know what it is? It’s not necessary to know it for it to function, but it helps to know what it is. That way you know where you belong. And it’s designed to function in the local church. So let’s get some principles about spiritual gifts. One, they’re not earned. They’re not deserved. They’re not developed. And they’re not acquired through some emotional experience. Your spiritual gift becomes operational through normal spiritual growth. It was given to you at salvation when you got saved. God the Holy Spirit indwelled you, sealed you, filled you, and gave you your spiritual gift. You have a spiritual gift. What is it? What does God expect you to do in your local church? Where do you fit in the cog? What’s your gift? Is it a gift of administration? Is it a gift of helps? Is it a gift of mercy? I talked to a young man yesterday. He said he knew he had to gift a pastor teacher and he had to make a career choice and career change in his life. This goes on all the time. It took me a while to figure out what my spiritual gift was, but once we saw what it was, once we understood that, Then we began to have a straight direction in which way we should go. But keep this in mind, that there were temporary spiritual gifts, temporary, that operated during the pre-canon period of the church age. Those temporary gifts were sensational spiritual gifts like apostles and prophets and teaching miracles and healing in tongues and interpretation of tongues. We don’t need those today. There’s no apostle running around today, no prophets running around today, nobody doing miracles, even though they claim they are. When a canon of Scripture came, the Bible says, when that which is perfect is to come, then that which is in part shall be done away with. And that which is perfect is the canon of scripture. So we don’t need an apostle to tell us something that we already got it. We don’t need prophets to predict the future. We already got it. We don’t need miracles, teaching and miracles and healings and tongues. That’s a different situation. So these were temporary spiritual gifts. And then there’s the permanent spiritual gifts. And those permanent spiritual gifts function from the completion of the New Testament and until the rapture of the church, and this is where you fit in. What is your spiritual gift? That’s the work of the Lord for you. The category of spiritual gift which you possess is not a sign of you being superior to anybody. It’s not a sign of your growth. It’s not a sign of your inferiority. If a man has a spiritual gift to pastor, teacher, that doesn’t mean he’s better than the person who has a spiritual gift of administration, or the person who has a spiritual gift of helps. It’s a spiritual gift assigned by God to an individual. The pastor teacher certainly has to have more application. So as I was talking to the young man yesterday, I talked to him about, you know, your passions and your priorities and preparation. There has to be preparation if you have the gift of pastor teacher. So there were permanent spiritual gifts and there were temporary spiritual gifts. But it’s not a sign of your growth or your inferiority. It’s just a matter of the sovereign wisdom of God and the Holy Spirit. You’re not better, you’re not worse than anybody else by virtue of what your spiritual gift is. So there must be a distinction you gotta recognize between natural abilities, natural talents, and spiritual gifts. I had a person tell me one time, I have the gift of singing. No, you don’t. You may have a talent or an ability, but that’s not a spiritual gift. Natural abilities are related to your physical birth and your genetics. Spiritual gifts are related to regeneration. There are two permanent communication gifts, only two. The gift of pastor-teacher, as the Greek calls it, and the gift of evangelism, yours truly, me, Rick Hughes. And any combination, therefore, related to the missionary function. Missionary itself is not a spiritual gift. Missionary is not a spiritual gift. It’s the function of the body of Christ. So all spiritual gifts must depend upon two factors for there to be working, for it to be a function, to be effective. Depends on the filling of the Holy Spirit, and it depends on you having momentum or spiritual growth in your life, your metabolization and your application of the Word of God in your life. I hope this is exciting to you. I wish you would discover what your spiritual gift is. It really is a wonderful thing to know where you fit in the plan. It’s like a football team. You know, you got the quarterback, the halfback, the tackle, the guard. They’re all important. And you are important. Whatever your spiritual gift is, it’s important. Because Satan’s objective is to hinder the execution of your spiritual gift. If he can do that, then he can stunt the growth in the body of Christ. So what exactly can he do to hinder you? What does he do to distract you from being steadfast and immovable? That verse we saw a moment ago, be steadfast and immovable, those two adjectives. Well, if you quench the Holy Spirit or you grieve the Holy Spirit from personal sin, your gift will not function. If you’re out of fellowship, the Holy Spirit is quenched and grieved, your spiritual gift will not function. If you fail to maintain spiritual momentum, grow spiritually, your gift will not function. So Paul warns again in 1 Corinthians 16, 13, be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. In the faith, it’s the word pistis, it means that which you’ve been taught, that which you believe, that which you based your life on. The faith, not saving faith, this is the living faith. Be courageous, be strong, and do everything in love. Virtue love is a wonderful thing. It’s a wonderful thing. The unyielding, never dying love of God is amazing. So we have personal love for God, which is your motivational virtue, and impersonal love for others, which is your functional virtue. You can love the weirdos, the jerks, the obnoxious people just like God loves them because he loved you, didn’t he? Maybe you’re a weirdo. Maybe you’re obnoxious. But he loved you. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And you can do the same thing. Do everything in love that comes about through the virtue of personal and impersonal love. So then he told him to be on guard. This is this passage I just gave you here. 1 Corinthians 16, 13, be on guard. Gregorio, stand guard, pay attention, be cautious. Why? I mean, what am I to guard against? Well, you must guard against infiltration by deception. You being distracted from your mission. In this verse, Paul uses military metaphors, an imagery of a soldier at his post with condition code red, which is a euphemism for a very serious situation. Nothing can be more serious than the condition of your spiritual life as it relates to your post and the local body of Christ. Many years ago, I have a friend who was a Green Beret and I took him down to Fort Benning, Georgia. And it was cold red. We couldn’t get on the base, even though he was a ranking captain or a major at that time. I don’t remember exactly what he was. But, I mean, it was cold red. Prior to that, you could drive on the base any time. But after 9-1-1, no more. Serious situation. So they had to search us, search a truck, make sure no bombs, make sure everything, even though I was with an officer. And this is what Paul is telling you. You must stand your post. You must be operating under code red. It’s a very serious situation because what? What’s going on? Because Satan is seeking to neutralize your effectiveness as a believer. As a member of your church, he wants to neutralize you. This is where you are posted. You’ve got to stand firm in your church, under your pastor, taking a firm position, using your spiritual gift. So two words, be on guard, gregoreo, and stand firm. Stay cold. Remain upright to persist, to persevere. This is what God expects out of you in your spiritual life as well. Be on guard to the attack. Stand firm in your growth. Let me show you some ways that Satan will try to distract you from your post. Number one, the Bible says, stand in the faith. So what he’s going to do is attack your confidence in what you’ve been taught. He will attack your confidence in what you’ve been taught. And I’ve seen it happen many times. People that were squared away, people that were great individuals growing in grace. And all of a sudden they didn’t believe what they were taught anymore. They heard another voice. They heard another person speak and that convinced them that you’ve been wrong all these years. And You need to believe what I’m teaching you now, and they don’t stand firm in the faith. Stand firm is an imperative mood verb. It means stand, lock your feet together, don’t move, be immovable. This means fidelity on your part, means one who can be counted on. With the tremendous distractions from the culture of Greek philosophy in the town of Corinth, all sort of religious distractions, all the 12 temples such as Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and also the temple of Asylophus, the god of healing, and the temple of Apollo, as well as Jewish synagogues. I mean, it was all kind of open and unbridled immorality in town. No wonder Paul was concerned about this church. And the church was full of immature believers that were being preyed upon by satanic devices. So stand firm in the faith. Faith is non-meritorious system of perception. It’s based on confidence in the authority and the veracity of God’s word for us. Faith means a system of doctrine. It’s a creed perceived by faith. It’s what we believe. It’s what we live under. Our faith, what we believe, what we live under, our doctrine. And Paul emphasized to them to stand confidently on the basics they had been taught. Don’t be distracted. Don’t be lured away. Don’t get into something that’s not true. This is where it starts. When Satan attacks a believer, and I bet you’ve seen this, he gets them disoriented about salvation or disoriented about the spiritual life. Even pastors can easily get off track by being impetuous or curious, looking for their own personal breakthroughs and wanting to be important and not depending on another man, young believer, young Christian is easily seduced into seeking something sensational, something that feeds his emotions and stimulates actions based on spirituality. So the Bible says in Galatians five, one stand fast, In the liberty with which Christ made you free. In the liberty, liberty. Stand in the faith, now stand in the liberty. What does that mean? It means avoid being trapped by legalism. Be free from the chains of legalism or religious manipulation. You know what I’m talking about. You’re not a good Christian if you smoke, brother. You’re not a good Christian if you drink a beer, brother. You’re not a good Christian if you say a bad word, brother. That’s not what the Bible teaches. That’s not what the Bible teaches. Legalism will tell you, do this, do that. I mean, certain parts of the country, you’re not a good Christian the way you dress. You’re not a good Christian if your hair is too long. You’re not a good Christian if your hair is too short. You’re not a good Christian if you wear makeup. You’re not a good Christian if you don’t wear makeup. I mean, good grief. Legalism is manipulating, always manipulating people, trying to manipulate you, trying to put you under chains of legalism and tell you, if you don’t do this, then God’s going to send you to hell. Well, that’s not true. The only reason anyone would ever go to hell is if they rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior. He who believes in him is not perished, but has everlasting life. And he who believes not, the wrath of God abides on him already, John 3, 18. There it is. So stand fast in your liberty. You have liberty. And the Bible talks about the law of liberty. Paul talked about it in 1 Corinthians 8. Therefore, concerning the eating of things that have been sacrificed to idols… He said, we know there’s no such thing as an idol in this world, and there is no God but one God, but food will not commend us to God. And we are neither worse if we do not eat, nor are we better if we do eat. So take care, lest this liberty of yours, strong believer, become a stumbling block to the weaker believer. In other words, if the weaker believer thinks it’s a sin to eat a steak and you invite him over and give him a steak, they’re not going to understand what’s going on. And then there’s the law of love, 1 Corinthians 8, 13. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will not eat food ever again so that I would not cause my fellow Christian to stumble. You have a responsibility to look out for the younger believers. You have a responsibility in love to watch over them and not cause them to stumble. Then there’s the law of expediency in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 9, 16. And I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. The law of expediency is directed towards the unbeliever. And it says this, Paul is saying this, it’s expedient that I not do something stupid when I’m witnessing. Or if I’m doing something stupid, it becomes an issue to the unbeliever. Some unbelievers don’t understand certain things. They have certain ideas that Christians should not do this. If you’re a Christian, you shouldn’t be eating peanuts. If you’re a Christian, you shouldn’t chew bubble gum. If you’re a Christian, you shouldn’t drink a Coca-Cola. So if you’re trying to talk to them about the Lord eating peanuts and drinking Coke and chewing bubble gum, they’re not going to listen to you. Don’t do it. There are times even when the unbeliever, a person that’s not a Christian, will try to superimpose standards on you. and expect you to comply with those standards. And this is how a church gets a reputation for being a cult, trying to make people do things that are not necessary. And then there’s the law of supreme sacrifice, a wonderful law. And this is directed to God in relation to several of the problems solving issues in the protocol plan of God. Personal love for God the Father and occupation with Jesus Christ, that’s the highest law of Christian behavior. And it generally applies to mature believers to forsake normal living and legitimate functions in life so you can serve the Lord in some special way. It means you put your passions aside for your priorities. So your passion is to go to the beach. Your passion is to go fishing. Your passion is to take a vacation. And you say, I deserve it. I earned it. And I know I’m going to miss church for the next few weeks, but who cares? I deserve this. Well, the supreme sacrifice said you put aside what you have the right to do in order to serve the Lord and be occupied with Christ. It’s the highest law of love. It’s you giving up something that’s okay, it’s normal, nothing wrong with it, but you give it up so that you can be there to support your pastor. We live by these standards so we don’t aid the enemy in the plan of attack. In Philippians 4.1, stand fast in the Lord. That means what? It means to be subject to his authority. Stay strong, continue to grow even in difficult times because many believers have abandoned their post in adversity. Many believers abandoned their posts under momentum testing. Many believers abandoned their posts under people testing, suffering, different tests. I mean, there never will be a time when you don’t need to feed on the word of God. Even when you’re dying, you need to keep feeding on the word of God. You know why? Because your soul will never die. And that wisdom of God that’s in your soul’s mentality will go with you to heaven. The word of God lives and abides forever, the Bible tells us. So, I mean, I know people that to their last day of living were listening to tapes, listening to scripture, listening to their pastor teach the word of God to them. In 2 Thessalonians 2.15, we see another word, stand fast in the doctrine that you’ve been taught. The New Testament often warns people against drifting away from truth into something different, into some sort of false beliefs. And then Paul addressed it in Galatians. He said, though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel of you other than that which we preach, let him be accursed. Galatians 1, 8 through 9. As we said, therefore, so I’m telling you again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you other than that which has been received by you, let him be accursed. And then the challenge to the local church, Philippians 1.27, whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel. That’s with your spiritual gift and your local church standing on the doctrine you’ve learned. Your mission is simply put is this, John 3, 19, and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone, what? Practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may clearly be seen and they’ve been done in God. In John 12, 46, listen carefully. I’ve come as a light into the world. Whoever believes in me would not have to live in darkness any longer. Paul said, for you once were in darkness, Ephesians 5, 8, but now you are in the light of the Lord. Walk as children of light. Again, 1 John 1, 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. Being in the light is being in fellowship. Being in the darkness is being out of fellowship. Your mission is to light up the world, light up the world with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what your spiritual gift is for, to represent Christ, to call men, women, boys, and girls to the Lord Jesus Christ through your testimony, through your words, through your deeds, to put your spiritual life priority number one, not your hobby, not your fun times, nothing but your spiritual life priority number one. If you don’t have a hunger to grow daily, you’re not growing. Can you go on a trip and leave your Bible at home? Can you take a vacation and not listen to the teaching of the Word of God for a week or two weeks at a time? Something’s wrong. You’re not growing. You’re stalemate. Get in the Word. Stay in the Word daily, daily. Listen to the teaching of the Word of God, and you will grow spiritually, and your gift will function, and you will replicate the life of Christ and glorify Him to the maximum. That’s what God’s expecting out of you. Stand firm. Be strong. Be immovable. Don’t give in to the devices of Satan. Use your spiritual gift in your local church to glorify God to the maximum. Well, I hope you’ve been listening. I hope you’ve been learning something. I’ve tried my best. I know I go fast. It’s just all I can do. So thank you for listening, and I hope you’ll come back next week, same time, same place. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatlines.
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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.
