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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 once again, glad to be with you this morning. 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education, and no manipulation. no con games, no gimmicks, no asking for money, just giving you some information, hopefully that will help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life so that you can orient and adjust to the plan if you’d like to. This show is about giving you information to live by. giving you the mind of Christ, the Bible calls it. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. When you learn to think like he thought, you change your IQ from a human IQ to a spiritual IQ. That means you develop what’s called divine viewpoint. Looking at things from the Word of God, having a personal sense of destiny related to your biblical orientation in your life. The Flotline is made up of those 10 unique problem-solving devices that we teach consistently on this radio show. Rebound, number one, confessing your sin to God. This gives you the problem of sin and how to deal with it. And number two, the filling of the Holy Spirit, which is giving you the answer to the problem of the sin nature and how to deal with the sin nature. when the Bible says we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5.18. Faith Rests Real, critical for every believer to understand how to live by faith and walk by faith. And Grace Orientation, understanding all the aspects of God’s grace, especially grace salvation. And Doctrinal Orientation, coming to study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. and so forth. So that’s part of those 10 unique problem-solving devices taught to me by my very own pastor many years ago. And we try to relate those on to you. In our last show, we started teaching on how to be an extraordinary believer, an extraordinary servant of God. And that’s where we want to go today. We want to pick up with that extraordinary individual. I told you that in John 13, all the way through John 16, Jesus Christ, our Savior, was talking to the disciples. giving them many, many, many doctrines for them to learn so that they could be transformed from ordinary individuals to extraordinary men of God that would carry out God’s plan and purpose for their lives and even for our lives today. But the question is, how does an ordinary believer like you and me, how do we become extraordinary servants of God? Or do you even want to be one of those extraordinary servants of God? Because that’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for biblical heroes, men and women that understand the plan of God, that will live by that. And in their life, they will represent Jesus Christ to their friends and their community. So how in the world would an ordinary believer like us become an extraordinary servant of God? Well, Hosea 14, nine gives the answer. Whoever is wise, let him understand these things. Whoever is discerning, let him know these things. For the ways of the Lord are right. That means they’re found in the Bible. And the righteous, that’s you and me, hopefully will walk in them. And wrongdoers will stumble over them. So we must be wise. We must be wise. If we’re going to be extraordinary servants of God, we must be wise and we must understand and discern the things of God. That’s what the verse says. Whoever’s wise, let him understand these things. Whoever’s discerning, let him know them. And what are the things? The ways of the Lord are right and the righteous will walk in them. When it’s referring to the righteous people, it’s talking about you and I, if we’re filled with the Holy Spirit, if we’re dealing with our known sin, if we’re growing in grace and producing capacity, righteousness in our life, where we glorify Jesus Christ with everything we’d say, do, live, act, the way we live our lives. This is what we go through the judgment seat of Christ about in 1 Corinthians 3. The wood, hay, and stubble, the gold, silver, and precious stones, this deals with our life. how we lived our life as righteous individuals, how we walked. And Paul said in Ephesians, don’t walk like the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. So let me give you some principles on this. That’s the best way for me to put it together. If you’re going to be an extraordinary believer, you must associate with other believers who have biblical wisdom. That’s the first thing. Quit hanging out with the wrong people. Proverbs 13.10, he that walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of a fool will be destroyed. Much of your life depends on who you spend time around. What is a fool? It’s a man who rejects divine viewpoint. It’s a man who thinks he’s smarter than God. It’s a man who will lead you down the my way highway merrily together. You’ll both destroy yourself. So if you’re going to be wise, if you’re going to be the extraordinary servant of God, first of all, you must be careful about who you spend your time around. Secondly, the extraordinary servant of God has come to understand exactly what God expects out of him. Proverbs 3.35, the wise shall inherit glory. but shame shall be the promotion of the fool. That’s your inheritance, the glory found in 1 Corinthians 3, gold, silver, precious stones. And if you’re wise, if you understand the wisdom from the word of God and you’ve accumulated insight and understanding, then that’s waiting on you. Here’s a third principle. The spiritually extraordinary servant of God has positive volition and stays filled with the Holy Spirit. Positive volition is opposed to negative volition. Positive volition is a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Negative volition is not. Negative volition wants nothing to do with God, nothing to do with His Word. Just leave me alone. Let me live my life the way I want to live it. But the extraordinary servant of God has positive volition, and he stays filled with the Holy Spirit. And he does not walk like Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind as warned by Paul in Ephesians 4.17. The vacuum in the mind is a metiotase is the Greek word. And it means a vacuum that sucks in all of this human viewpoint, all the cosmic thinking of the world. The panacea is that Satan throws out that this can be a utopia here on this earth and it cannot be, never can be. No political person can change the history of this country because you can’t change the hearts of men. The only thing that can change the heart of a man is the gospel, the good news. And Jesus Christ can do that. When you believe in Christ and you receive him as your savior, God puts a new heart in you, so to say. A new life begins and a new opportunity begins for you. So that supernatural, extraordinary servant of God understands God’s divine desideratum. That’s a Latin word meaning God’s policies, his procedures, his protocol plan. And you know as well as I that God’s policy is always a grace policy, always grace. We’re saved by grace, we live by grace, we die in grace, we have surpassing grace in the future. And then you understand God’s procedure in the divine desideratum, and that simply means this, that it requires faith. Because Hebrews 11, six says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. And then finally, the protocol plan of God demands order. The protocol plan of God demands order, which means a right thing has to be done in the right way. And you’ve heard me say that it’s right to go to church, it’s right to sing in the choir, it’s right to give money, it’s right to do, you know, it’s okay. But you can do it in the wrong way. And a right thing done in the wrong way is no good. What is a right thing in the wrong way? Prayer can be a right thing in the wrong way. Because the Bible says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, then the Lord will not hear me. So if I’m praying and I have unconfessed sin in my life, it’s not going to go any higher than the ceiling. In order for my prayer to be effective, I have to be in fellowship, which means I must use 1 John 1, 9 when I know I’ve sinned. So if you’re an advancing believer, you must pay attention and focus on the priorities of God, especially while you’re living in the time continuum. Time continuum. You say, what is that? On this earth right now while we’re here. Listen to 2 Corinthians 4, 18. While we look not at things which are seen, but at things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are but temporary. but the things which are not seen are eternal. That’s where our focus must be, not on the seen things. I mean, we live in the devil’s world, but on the eternal things. That’s where we will be. That’s where we’ll spend eternity. And if we’re going to focus on something, we have to focus on that. So the extraordinary servant of God follows a precisely correct procedure in this phase of his eternal existence right now while you’re here. I mean, you’re already living an eternal life. Did you know that? Did you realize that you’re already in your eternal status the moment you believed in Christ? Listen to John 3, 18. He that believes in him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. already condemned if you are not a believer. You don’t have to wait to die and go to hell, you’re already condemned. And if you have accepted Christ as your savior, you have been born again and you are living in already your eternal life phase. And when you die, which you will, you have to die because this body won’t work in heaven, then you just simply transfer to be face-to-face with the Lord. It’s nothing big you have to go through. It’s just boom. You die and you wake up and you’re face-to-face with the Lord. There you are. So we follow precisely correct procedure. And it’s critical that we understand the God we worship. That’s what’s critical. That’s where the problem comes in sometimes. So many people know God and worship God, but they don’t understand him. And they wind up doing all the right things in the wrong way. So that’s why Hosea 14.9 said, whoever is wise, let him understand these things. Wise and understand, two different Hebrew words. Both are important. The word wise in the Hebrew is kakam. You say, what does that mean? Well, that’s a descriptive adjective. And it means whoever is skillful or prudent or intelligent or capable of determining a course. Whoever’s wise, let him understand. That’s the Hebrew word being, and it means to comprehend or discern or have discernment. So if I put that together in a modified, expanded translation, it’s saying this, whoever’s intelligent, let him comprehend the ways of the Lord. The divine advantage that you have as a Christian. When you find a well-qualified pastor that understands God’s word and is wise is that he can teach you how to live the Christian life. So God’s message to us is simply this, the ways of the Lord are right and the righteous will walk in them. This reflects the attitude of you, a faithful believer. And hopefully, as you sit in the congregation of your local church, other ones that’ll be there with you. Why? Because you have imputed righteousness from the moment you believed in Christ, and hopefully your pastor can teach you enough word of God so that you can build capacity righteousness in your life. Not relative righteousness. That’s different. That’s the religious self-righteous person who thinks he’s going to go to heaven because he’s good and does good deeds. There’s no doubt that a Christian should be a moral individual, but morality doesn’t save you. Morality is not how you get to heaven. And so sometimes people try to depend on their morality or their good deeds to buy their way into heaven. That’s called relative righteousness. It doesn’t work. That simply means we’ve moved from being an ordinary believer to be an extraordinary believer if we learn these things that I’m giving you. And that’s what we want you to do. No fanfare. Nobody’s going to clap for you. Nobody’s going to give you a pin. Nobody’s going to put your picture up on the internet and say, here’s a great, extraordinary spiritual hero right here. But I can assure you of this, that your heavenly father knows who you are. I promise you. And he will reward you. Now, let me take a look at women, ladies, okay? In Proverbs 31, King Lemuel tells us of instructions given to him by his mother. And she warned him, don’t associate with women who have no virtue that might lure him into adultery. She warned him about the dangers of being an alcoholic. She warned him to judge fairly regardless of people’s social status or financial status. But when you get to Proverbs 31 verses 10 through 31, We have an acrostic poem illustrating an extraordinary woman called the woman of virtue. We might call her extraordinary, the extraordinary spiritual woman. And it says in 3110, who can find this woman, this virtuous woman? She’s a woman of force, she’s a powerful woman. Because a virtuous woman, Proverbs 12, four says, is a crown to her husband, never a liability. a crown because of the wisdom in her soul that gives her insight and discernment because of her positive volition, because of her spiritual growth. This refers to a woman that has great inner strength, a great noble character. This suggests a woman with great insight and great discernment, which is the byproduct of biblical wisdom in her soul. She’s very valuable. Proverbs 31.10 says she’s more valuable than rubies. That’s a lot of money. Proverbs 8.11, for wisdom is greater than rubies. So the wisdom in her soul is greater than the wealth of rubies that you could pour at her feet. The true value of a woman like this is not what she looks like. I mean, so many people get hung up on looks and symmetry of body. The true value of a woman is not what she looks like, but how she thinks. Does she have that wisdom in her soul? Does she have that insight and understanding in her soul? Is she manufacturing virtue? Is she representing Christ? That’s the question. So the Bible says in Proverbs 31, 30, charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. There you go. But a woman who fears the Lord shall be praised. Charm is deceitful. And beauty is vain. There are many ladies that use charm to deceive people and use their beauty to get themselves promoted. But there’s nothing worse than an empty, hollow, lonely woman who has no life except to manipulate other people. And she’s not respected by the Lord. But if she has some wisdom, if she understands God’s plan, she will be praised. Here’s some principles. Listen to these carefully. An extraordinary woman of God is not basing her greatness on her exterior beauty, not basing her greatness on materialistic things that she possesses. All of those things are totally useless and totally meaningless unless she has some inner beauty of virtue and inner happiness based on the word of God in her soul. Two, if a man can meet a woman like this, a woman who has a soul saturated with the Word of God, wisdom in her soul, that’s a great find. It’s not easy to find a woman like this since the world we live in doesn’t put emphasis on these things. It puts emphasis on the outward, not on the inner. If you’re a guy and you’re asking God to lead you to the woman to spend the rest of your life with, look at what’s in her soul, not what she looks like, not how she smells, not how she talks, but what she thinks. That’s the important thing. If an ordinary Christian woman ever hopes to become an extraordinary spiritual woman, spiritual lady, she must put first things first in her life. And that means without biblical wisdom, she could possess all the trappings of luxury and beauty and still be miserable due to an empty soul. There’s nothing worse than an empty soul. What do I mean by that? I mean a soul that has no content, a soul that has no capacity, a soul that has no character. That’s an empty soul and nothing worse than being that sort of person. But when an ordinary lady functioned under God’s extraordinary plan, that woman has the possibility of becoming extraordinary and is assured of happiness and comfort by means of God’s Holy Spirit and the resident wisdom of the Word of God in her soul, giving her great capacity for life, giving her great contentment in life, making her a virtuous woman, the woman that Proverbs 31 talks about. You know, females, it’s interesting. When a man finds an extraordinary Christian woman, he finds a dedicated and trusted friend and could even be a mate for life. And it’s interesting how weak men are frightened by ladies like this. They’re frightened by a woman with virtue because they cannot manipulate her. And sometimes they feel inferior around this woman. But females, especially females, suffer greatly when a nation like ours begins to go under discipline. We may be on the verge of national discipline today here in the United States of America. I don’t know. I don’t like the way this country is going. I don’t like the direction this country is moving in. But let me give you some insight from the book of Isaiah where God speaks about judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel. That northern kingdom was rapidly deteriorating politically and spiritually and militarily until they were finally conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. And Judah was looking at the same thing. Thus Isaiah speaks to Judah, the southern kingdom, and warns them of what was coming if they did not change their mind in the way they were living and repent. Here’s what Isaiah said in chapter 1, verse 18. Come now. Let’s reason together. In other words, let’s think about this. Says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Verse 19, if you are willing and obedient. But if you refuse and if you rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. That’s divine discipline on a nation. The divine discipline on a nation has a devastating effect on the female population. In Isaiah 3, 16 through 25, Isaiah gives a picture of it. It’s not nice. The Lord says the women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore the Lord will bring sores onto the heads of these women of Zion, and the Lord will make their scalps bald. In that day, the Lord will snatch away their finery and their bangles and their headbands and their crescent necklaces, the earrings and the bracelets and the veils and the headdresses and the anklets and the sashes and the perfume bottles and the charms and the signet rings and the nose rings and the fine robes and the capes and the cloaks, the purses, the mirrors, the linen garments and the tiaras and the shawls. Wow. Instead of fragrance, there will be a stench. Instead of a sash, there will be a rope. Instead of well-dressed hair, baldness. Instead of fine clothing, sackcloth. Instead of beauty, branding. And your men will die by the sword. Your warriors will fall in battle. That’s a warning to a nation. And that could happen to us. We have to understand God’s not going to play games with America much longer. Under whom much is given, much is expected. There are some traits of extraordinary women in the Bible. I’ve looked at them. They’re amazing. For example, there’s one in the Bible in Joshua 2, verses 1 through 7. Her name was Rahab. She was a harlot. She ran a house of ill repute. And she was smart enough to hide the spies from Joshua at the risk of her own life. She was a woman of courage. That’s one of the traits of an extraordinary woman, courage. See, she hid two of Joshua’s men from the king after the king got word that the spies were in town. Remember the Battle of Jericho? Joshua at the Battle of Jericho, that’s what we’re talking about here. The king knew that these two men had been at her quarters So he commanded her to produce them, but she hid them, cut a deal with those two spies to spare her family and her life once the Jews attacked Jericho. She was a believer and she said so. She said in verse 11, the Lord your God is in heaven above all and on earth beneath. She was a woman of courage, Rahab the harlot. And then Ruth in the Bible, a whole book written about Ruth, a woman of virtue who followed her mother-in-law Naomi back to the nation of Israel from the land of Moab. Ruth 1.16 talks about her commitment. And then there’s Esther, a woman of influence, a tremendous woman with tremendous character. And she had to speak up and expose the plot of Haman who intended to kill all the Jews. Esther 4.14, the Bible says, “‘For if you keep silent at this time, “‘liberation and rescue will arise for the Jews “‘from another place, “‘and you and your father’s house will perish. “‘And who knows whether you have not attained royalty “‘for such a time as this?’ She was encouraged to speak up and tell the king what Haman was planning. Mary Magdalene, a great woman of concern, extremely loyal to our Lord, The Lord had cast seven demons out of her and she was actually the very first person he appeared to after the resurrection, Mary Magdalene. And then there was Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha. She was cognizant of her need for the word of God over food. In Luke 10, 38 through 42, she had her priorities right. And Jesus said it in 42, look, the one thing is needful and Mary has chosen the good part which shall not be taken away. Her sister complained that she wasn’t helping her in the kitchen. And the Lord said, no, she’s exactly where she’s supposed to be. And then in John chapter 4, the woman at the well, a woman that was confrontational, a gospel influencer, went back into her town and led many, many, many people to Christ. So an extraordinary Christian woman that I’m speaking about is going to have these six traits plus a few more. Courage. Use of the faith rest drill, standing on the promises of God. Commitment, never looking back, always pressing forward. Character, unmovable, solid, a risk taker. Concern, genuine empathy and support. Cognizant, always having the right priorities. And confrontational, not afraid to speak the gospel, bold in her faith. The real beauty of the extraordinary woman is this. It’s our soul. It’s in our soul. So your true beauty is what you think. And your response to the word of God will reflect it. So Isaiah 32.9 gives a warning to the women of Judah. Rise up, you careless daughters. Give ear to my speech. Listen. Isaiah foresaw what was coming, issued the warning. It’s incredibly insightful to understand this. What we have coming in this country may not be nice. And what the women of this country do could determine the future of this country. We need women of courage, commitment, cognizant. We need these sort of women. We need you to be that sort of woman, a woman that will stand up for your faith, have character and concern. That’s what we need. So many nations are delivered by women just like this. And I know that God is looking for a few good ladies that can be spiritual influencers, that can have this sort of extraordinary life. I pray it would be you. I pray you’re listening because there’s a lot more that I need to say. Because unless the mothers of America get their eyes off political solutions and back on the Lord, we’re not going to survive as a free client nation much longer. It’s important because wives and moms are the backbone of the country. and it can be their faith and their encouragement that stabilizes the future of this nation. Are you listening? Are you paying attention? Are you getting this message? That’s how ordinary ladies become extraordinary members of the pivot. Strength and dignity are their clothing, Proverbs 31, 25. I know I’m speaking to you. I know you’re listening to me. It’s my great honor to give you these thoughts, and I pray that God the Holy Spirit will challenge you with them and that you’ll come back next week and continue to listen as we explore some more on going from ordinary to extraordinary. Until then, I’m your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Floodline.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:18

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.