Drawing from robust scriptural references and personal insights, Rick Hughes explains the transformative power of faith and its vital role in the spiritual battlefield. As the episode progresses, listeners discover the significance of confidence born from faith and the impact of having a spiritual insight that transcends everyday distractions. This discussion not only enlightens about the promise of heaven but also equips believers with practical strategies to harness biblical wisdom and navigate life’s challenges. Tune in for a spiritual deep dive that promises to rejuvenate your faith and offer fresh perspectives on being spiritually prepared for the future.
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, I’d like to ask you to stick around. It’ll be a short time, just 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education, and all without any type of manipulation. So I hope you’ll stick around and listen. It’s my joy to come to you every Sunday morning about this same time. And whatever station you’re listening on, we’re broadcasting on 110 cities across America this morning. I don’t know where you may be, but thank you for listening. Thank you so much. Let me remind you, this is rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. Recently, I’ve had some of my people try to get in touch with me through the Internet, and they’ve gone to a website called richardhughesministries.org, and that is not me. That’s a wonderful man over in Georgia. I am rickhughesministries.org, and we have the flatline. All of our radio shows are on our website, plus all the books that we’ve written, and we give away free. So if you’re interested in any of our material… Just go on over to rickhughesministries.org, and you can find everything you need to know right there. The Flatline, this is show 914. It’s 914 Sundays that we’ve been broadcasting this radio broadcast. And through every bit of this, our Father has supplied our needs. You notice we don’t ask for money. We don’t solicit offerings. We just trust the Lord to provide it, and He always has and always will. And this is the way I believe it should be done. I don’t believe in hustling up money. So if God’s in it, he pays for it. It’s just that simple. Today I want to talk to you about a subject that’s very interesting, something that I’ve run across listening to my pastor teach the Bible, and it’s called the eyes of the soul. The eyes of the soul. Now, the soul, S-O-U-L, is not talking about rhythm and blues. I’m talking about the invisible soul. immortal part of you that God himself created. Your soul is composed of three, your body’s composed of three parts, or you are, maybe put it this way, you have three parts to you, body, soul, and spirit. You have three parts, you’re a trichotomous, you have a body, you have a soul, and you have a spirit. And where do I get that? From 1 Thessalonians 5.23, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly And I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But remember, the unbeliever is spiritually dead from birth because of the imputation of Adam’s original sin. Thus, that’s why he needs to be born again if he wants to go to heaven, because he’s spiritually dead and separated from God because of Adam’s original sin. But as a reminder, the scriptures say in Psalm 139, verse 14, I will praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made and marvelous are your works so that my soul knoweth right well. That’s right, you are indeed an amazing creation from the hand of God. We don’t all look alike. Some are tall, some are short, some are round, some are skinny, some are dark-headed, some are blonde-headed, some are black, some are white, some are red, some are yellow. I mean, the Lord made us all. Everybody may be different, but the soul is not different. The invisible soul is exactly the same in every individual. Every one of us has mentality, which is the ability to think in logic and reason. We all have volition, which is the ability to choose, decide, discern. We all have a conscience, and this is where your norms and standards are stored. This is what you learned as a kid, don’t do this and don’t do that, and it stays in your conscience and guides you through your life. And then you have a self-consciousness, which is an awareness of who you are. If you stood in front of a mirror, you could say, that’s me, oh yeah, that’s me. And the mentality of your soul is where we live the spiritual life. You live it in the mentality of your soul. Because your soul is a spiritual battlefield. And what you think determines whether or not you’re gonna win or lose the battle. Ephesians 4.23, the Apostle Paul says, then become refreshed or renewed by means of the Spirit, by means of the way you think. Become refreshed or renewed by means of the Holy Spirit, by means of your thinking. So you are what you think. If you want to put some muscle into your spiritual life, it’s called faith. Faith is the muscle of the spiritual life. And without faith, You cannot please God. Where would I get that? Hebrews 11.6. But without faith, it’s impossible to please God. For he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So the next question is, what exactly is faith? What is that? What do you mean, faith? Well, in Hebrews 11.1, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence, that’s the key word, of things not seen. So faith is the absolute confidence for you to be able to see things not seen with the human eye. Faith is confidence supported by complete trust in God’s plan. In Ephesians 3.12, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence, by the faith of him. There’s two words together, confidence and faith together. Ephesians 3.12, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. In Hebrews 19.35, cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. And in 1 John 2.28, and now little children, abide in him, so that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, confidence, confidence, and not be ashamed before him in his coming. Hear that word confidence keeps coming up. Do not cast away your confidence. Have confidence. Boldness and confidence by the means of faith. Confidence is an interesting Greek word in the New Testament. It wasn’t written in English, it was written in Koine Greek. And this word parousia, parousia means frankness or bluntness or assurance. Hey, there’s something interesting. If you speak with confidence regarding God’s plan, then you may speak boldly or frankly since you have seen the results through the eyes of your soul using faith. You believe God and you believe it’s going to happen. People might accuse you of being dogmatic, may accuse you of being narrow-minded or even a bigot. But you have seen with the eyes of your soul what those individuals cannot observe because they have no confidence. They only have rationalism. We have a mandate to operate under faith. We’re commanded to do that in Hebrews 12, two through three. Let us fix our eyes, that means concentrate, on Jesus Christ, the author and the perfecter of our faith. And that’s a mandate, that’s not a request. It goes on to say, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such opposition by sinners against himself, so that you yourself do not grow weary and faint in your soul. So the whole reason for you using faith is to observe the coming circumstances, understand what’s gonna happen, and make you strong in the face of satanic opposition. A life of faith rest is a life of absolute confidence, and faith rest drill is problem-solving device number three of the 10 problem-solving devices that inform the flatline on your soul. A life of faith rest is a life of absolute confidence, Proverbs 2.2. Make your ear to concentrate on wisdom and apply your heart to understanding, for wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge of doctrine will be pleasant to your soul. and the heart of the wise man acquires knowledge. And that’s the absolute confidence you have by learning God’s word, storing it in your soul, producing faith. But without any biblical wisdom, if you don’t understand this, without biblical wisdom, you are simply walking blindly through the devil’s world. The problem is the unbeliever is at a tremendous disadvantage since he’s trying to navigate his way through life without the advantage of soul insight, which comes from faith mixed with divine instruction. In Luke 24, 45, and 46, our Lord gave his disciples the ability to foresee the future with the eyes of their souls mentality. Listen as I read it to you. Luke 24, 45, then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, so it’s written that Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. So they saw now with the mentality of their soul what he was talking about. That’s exactly what a well-qualified pastor can do for you. He can teach divine truth to you called biblical wisdom, and that will give you understanding and insight about future events in your life. I’m not talking about fortune telling, I’m talking about God’s plan and will for your life. For example, in Ephesians 4.11, and he gave some apostles some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastor teachers. Why? Why did God give these gifts? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the building up of the body of Christ. That’s you. You need to be equipped, and you need to be built up. Now, listen, your physical eyes have never seen heaven, neither have mine. In 1 Corinthians 2, 9, but as it is written, the eye has not seen, nor has even the ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him. But let me show you what the Bible says about heaven. Are you interested? In 1 Corinthians 15, 51 through verse 55, picture this in your soul. In the mentality of your soul, see if your mind will let you see this by faith. I tell you a mystery, Paul wrote. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. So when the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with the immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? This is talking about your resurrection body. getting a new body that you will live in for eternity. Can you see that by faith? Can you see it? Can you understand the things that I’m telling you? Listen to what I’m about to describe to you about heaven and see if your mind’s eye can see this. John 14, two through three, in my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I’m going to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am you may be also. Do you believe that? Do you have faith in that? Then you can see it. Your mind’s eye can see it. That’s the mentality of your soul allowing you to see what’s going to happen in the future as God’s word proclaims it. Listen to this in Hebrews 12, but you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirit of just men made perfect. That’s what it’s gonna be like. The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. innumerable company of angels, you won’t be able to count them all, to the General Assembly and the Church of the Firstborn, that’s us, you and me, and believers all across the world will assemble at the throne of God in heaven. Just picture this, Revelation 7, 9 through 12, after these things I looked And behold, a great multitude, which no one could number, of all nations, all tribes, all people, all tongues, standing before the throne of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, palm branches in their hand, and crying with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. That’s a future event, and I know that it’s going to happen because I have faith in what God said in the scriptures. There’s going to be an incredible lifestyle in heaven. You might not realize it, but in Revelation 7, listen to this. After these things, I looked and beheld a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, all tribes, all people, I think that’s what I just gave you. Did you get that? Didn’t mean to repeat that twice. So there is peace and praise in heaven. Understand from Revelation 7, 15. There’s no arguing in heaven, no fighting in heaven. In Revelation 7, 15, therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. And they shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. And the sun shall not strike them nor any heat for the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eye. Think about that. That’s what you have coming. Now the agnostic, the disadvantaged person say, I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that stuff. And that’s fine. If you don’t want to believe it, you don’t have to believe it. That’s why God gave you volition. He gave you a choice. You can try to figure out what you think is going to happen on your own through some sort of rationalism. But I’m telling you what the Bible says is going to come true, and I can see it with the eyes of my soul, just like you can. The Holy Jerusalem from the Apostle John’s eyes, Revelation 21.9. Come and I will show you the bride, the lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. And then the gates to heaven, Revelation 21, 21. The 12 gates were 12 pearls. And each individual gate was one of pearl, and the streets of the city were pure gold like transparent glass. And in Revelation 21, 23, And the city of God had no need of sun nor of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did light it. And the Lamb of God is the lamp of that city. There is no night there. Wow. Can you believe that? That’s what’s awaiting you, that you should have confidence in all of this. You should desire to see all of this by faith alone in Christ alone. That’s the only way you’re gonna get in because Christ said, I am the door. By me, man enters in and out. The tree of life is in heaven. Did you know that? Revelation 22, two, and in the midst of its streets and on either side of the river, there was a tree of life which bore 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And once we’re there, we will carry his name forever and you won’t believe where it is. Revelation 22, 4, they shall see his face and his name, that’s the Lamb of God, shall be on their forehead. And there shall be no night there. And they will not need a lamp or a light of the sun. For the Lord will give them light and they shall reign forever and forever. With the eyes of your soul, you have the confidence and the assurance in these things. Those are the biblical descriptions of what awaits you in the future. Can you see them? Can you understand that? Can you picture that in your soul? That’s what faith rest is about. Again, the faith rest drill is the third of our 10 problem-solving devices. Let’s go over them quickly for you, okay? Number one is rebound. What does that solve? That solves the problem of your personal sin. We all sin. We all come short of the glory of God. And when you sin, you can’t make it up to God. You can’t promise him you’re never going to do it again because that’s a joke. You probably will do it again. But you can go to the Father and do exactly what the Bible tells you to do. In 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sin, then he’s faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all wrongdoing. That’s the secret to the security and the empowerment of the Christian life. It’s what allows you to be controlled by the Holy Spirit because when you sin, you quench the Holy Spirit. And when you quench the Holy Spirit, you limit your soul’s ability to use faith or see the future of God’s word. You must stay in fellowship. You must rebound when you sin. Please don’t wait till you go to bed at night. Please don’t say, well, I don’t really sin much. One sin is like a thousand sins. When you sin, mental attitude sin, worry, fear, anger, bitterness, sin of the tongue, gossip, slander, maligning, criticizing, even overt sin, open sin. When you sin, you must rebound. You didn’t lose your salvation. You just simply got temporarily out of fellowship with God. And if you rebound, 1 John 1, 9, you can regain problem-solving device number two, the filling of the Holy Spirit. And as you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, then this solves the problem of your genetically formed sin nature because there’s a battle inside of you. Unfortunately, the sin nature doesn’t want to give up control of your life. And that’s why Paul wrote, the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit wars against the flesh. And these are contrary one to the other so that we cannot do the things that we would. But if we will walk in the spirit, then we won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. So how do you walk in the spirit? By rebounding. When you sin, you stumble. When you rebound, you get up and continue to advance. That’s walking in the spirit. And then there is problem-solving device number three, what we’re talking about. Faith rests standing on the promises of God. They are as sure as the concrete in your driveway. I hope you have the faith to see that. I hope you understand. The only way that your soul can comprehend these things is by faith. And that’s why the Bible says it’s impossible to please God without faith. You have to have faith. He gives you enough information so that you can see these things in the future. Do you believe it? Do you have confidence in it? Will you tell someone else about it? I hope so. Faith has many, many promises in the Bible. I understand there’s thousands of promises in the Bible. And we’ve written a book called Promises and Principles from the Word of God, and it’s free. It lists a lot of the biblical promises that you can claim in certain situations. That’s how you pray. You bring it back up to the Lord and say, now you wrote this, Father, and I believe this, and I’m claiming this. And that book is free, Promises and Principles, through Rick Hughes Ministries. You can call us 800-831-0718, 800-831-0718 and order that book on Promises and Principles. Or you can go to our website and order it from there. Then we have the grace orientation that we need to live life. We are saved by grace. We live by grace. We die by grace. We have surpassing grace in heaven. It’s all grace, G-R-A-C-E, grace of God. You took a deep breath this morning when you got up. You might have even made a cup of coffee. You might have got a glass of orange juice. You might have had a pancake or a biscuit or an egg. That’s the grace of God providing what you need to live your life on a daily basis. Matthew chapter 6 talks about it. So you live by grace. That’s a problem-solving device. You don’t worry. You don’t worry about your future. You don’t worry about your provisions. God promised he would provide it. And then there’s doctrinal orientation. That’s when you begin to thank the mind of Christ. As the Bible said, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. This does away with human viewpoint thinking. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. And the Bible says in Romans 12, 3, stop thinking of yourself 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. You can’t think it if you don’t know it. If you don’t know it, you can’t see it, and you can’t trust it. So in order for your soul to see these promises, you must have them in the mentality of your soul. And then you can stand on faith and believe it. Rebound, the filling of the Holy Spirit, faith rest drill, grace orientation, doctoral orientation. These all give you a personal sense of destiny. Knowing that God has designed a plan for you. We talked about divine guidance a few weeks ago and Goodness, I must have had 20 or 30 people contact me, say, how do I get that book, Divine Guidance? That was written by my pastor many years ago, Colonel R.B. Thiem out of Baraka Church in Houston, Texas. You can always go there and order that book from their website, Thiem Ministries, T-H-I-E-M-E, Thiem Ministries. And then you can order that book free of charge, Divine Guidance. If you can’t do that, let us know. We’ll try to get one for you. Okay, we go from personal sense of destiny to personal love for God, which is your motivational virtue, and impersonal love for other people, which is your functional virtue. You love him because he first loved you. That’s why you love him, John says. And then that’s the greatest virtue you can have, personal love for God. And this allows you to love people that are not very lovable, same way God loved you. God so loved the world, you weren’t very lovable when he did it, but you can use that same type of impersonal love. This gives you plus eight, sharing the happiness of God. That’s what the Lord Jesus Christ said in John 15, 11. I’ve told you these things so that my joy might be in you. And then you can come to being occupied with Christ, with the person of Christ, reflecting Christ in and through your life. Christ in you, Paul said, is the hope of glory. That’s what you want your friends to see, Christ in you. You want to re-present Jesus Christ through your life, through your lips, through your testimony, through your actions. That’s what having a flat line on your soul is all about. You can’t see what you don’t understand, and you can’t understand what you’ve never learned. In order for your soul to see these promises, in order for you to see the invisible that other people cannot see, It means you must grow spiritually. You must learn spiritually. The Lord Jesus Christ said, take my yoke and learn from me. Learn from me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Peter wrote, grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That’s why I keep encouraging you to get under a well-qualified pastor. And I know there might not be one in your area. We can help you find that pastor. If you’ll contact us, we’ll do our best to direct you in the right direction. Sooner or later, I’m not your pastor. I’m just an appetizer. I’m just an evangelist. I can’t give you the whole meal, the complete meal. It’s not my job. That’s the job of your pastor to give you that steak. I’m the salad dish before the steak. So let’s find that pastor. Let’s get under that pastor. Let’s grow under that pastor so that we become the man or the woman God intends for you to be. That’s my prayer and that’s why we have this radio show. We’re looking for Those sort of people that fit into what we call the pivot. That’s the core group of mature believers that will deliver this nation in the future. Not by any military action, no. Not by any crusader action, no. But by their invisible spiritual life having an invisible impact on a nation. That’s the only way we will survive. Took a lot of generations for us to get to where we are today. And I don’t see us going back to where we used to be, the way things are going. But I see you, if you will grow, if you will learn, if you will study, if you will apply, I can see you representing Christ and delivering us in the future. So think about these things. Think about what you’re missing by not seeing it with the eyes of your soul, the faith in your soul. And I hope you’ll come back and be with me next week at the same time, same place. And I’m your host again, Rick Hughes, rickhughesministries.org. Thank you for listening today, and we’ll talk to you next Sunday.
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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.
