SPEAKER 01 : 0:08

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.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:24

Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, stay with me. It won’t be long, just 30 minutes, but it’s a lot of motivation, inspiration, education, and no manipulation. No con games, no collecting money, no selling you anything, not trying to get you to join it up, fess it up, give it up. We just would like for you to listen, listen up as I try to verify and identify God’s plan for your life. If I’m able to do that and you would like to orient and adjust to the plan, you have the free will, the freedom to do that. It’s my prayer that you will. The flood line’s been coming to you now for 21 years and it’s been an amazing time. God’s given me the privilege to do this, but I’d like to tell you we got a book that we’ve revised. It’s one of our older books called Understanding Your Soul, and we’re going to redo that book, and we’re coming out with it in a new format. It should be available by Thanksgiving. So if you’d like to get a copy of it, let us know through the website, rick at rickhughesministries.org, rick at rickhughesministries.org. If you call us, you can always do that. But if you do leave a voicemail, I insist that you speak slowly and distinctly so we can understand what your address is and what you’re saying. So many voicemails I get, we can’t understand people because it’s way too fast. So slow it down very distinctly and give us your name and address, and we’ll get that book to you if you want it, because we’re going to talk about your soul today. That’s really basically what the message is about, dealing with the soul. We all know about that. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, here’s our verse we want to key on. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly I pray, God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you get that? Spirit, soul, and body be preserved. In this particular passage, to give you some background why Paul said what he did, he’s just given a series of commands to the royal family there at the church in Thessalonica. beginning on 1 Thessalonians 5, 11, where he said, comfort one another. And then he said, edify each other. And then in verse 12, he states that they should recognize those who labor among them and recognize them with personal love of the work they do. Those are the people that are teaching the word of God, the pastor teachers. In verse 14, we find four different exhortations that are significant in any local congregation. Here’s what they are. He said, first, warn those who are causing trouble. Then he said, encourage the faint-hearted. Then he said, support the weak. Then he said, be patient towards all men. I really need to take this verse apart for you, and we’re going to do that at a later time, I promise you. In verses 15 through 22, we find some more series of mandates. See that nobody render evil for evil, unto any man, but every one follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. And then he said, rejoice evermore. Then he said, pray without ceasing. Then he said, in everything give thanks. I mean, I can’t believe I need to discover this whole thing where you can explain what each one of these words are. 1 Thessalonians 5, 19, quench not the spirit of God. Verse 20, despise not prophesying. Verse 21, prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. And 22, abstain from all appearances of evil. That’s 1 Thessalonians 5, beginning of verse 11, going through verse 22. And that’s what I want to come back to in the next show or two and break that down for you, and hopefully you’ll enjoy that. But as we get near the end of this letter, we find Paul’s prayer for those which I read to you earlier. And he said, I pray that the very God of peace sanctify you wholly in your spirit, soul, and body. Paul’s prayer, he’s recognizing that there are three parts that every believer has. He brought it up. Listen again, I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word spirit is the word pneuma, and that’s what you have if you’re a Christian. You have a living human spirit, indwelled by God the Holy Spirit. Without being saved, you have a dead spirit. You’re spiritually dead. And it’s impossible to have fellowship with God unless you’re born again. I’ll show you that in just a minute. And these people have a living human spirit and dwelled by God, the Holy Spirit, They are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he said the word and your soul, psuche, psuche is the Greek word for it, psuche, your soul. And then he said your body. Your body is the Greek word soma. So as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have three parts. The fancy word is your trichotomous, trichotomous. That means you have three distinct parts. The unbeliever is not trichotomous, he’s dichotomous, he only has two parts. He has a body, he has a soul, but he does not have a living human spirit. So the non-Christian is minus the human spirit, And thus, that’s why he cannot, will not ever have fellowship with God. Listen to John 4, 24. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So how are they going to worship God if they don’t have a living human spirit? They can’t do it. God is a spirit, and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. In Matthew 10, 28, we find a verse that says, Fear not them which can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, the psuche, but rather feel him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. You know, whenever an airliner declares an emergency to the tower, the air traffic controller will always ask questions about how much fuel they have on board. And interesting enough, he will say this. He will say, how many souls on board? How many souls on board? An air traffic controller asks for souls on board in an emergency to quickly get the total number of living people on an aircraft in case there needs to be a rescue or recovery efforts. And that includes passengers, crew, even infants. The maritime tradition provides a vital, concise piece of information for responders without needing a separate count of passengers, crew, and others. In other words, there were three pilots and two this and one that. No, just how many totally. It also carries a very sobering, respectful tone for a potentially very grave situation. So if this thing crashes and if it goes into the ground, how many souls on board? It’s clear now that God made you a living soul. You might want to pinch yourself to find out if you’re still alive, but God made you a living soul. It’s also clear that God created you a living body. The Bible teaches that God, by his own design, created your body from the dust of the earth, and he gave you life by breathing the breath of life into you and making you a living soul. God’s creation of your body is a deliberate and good act, and it’s meant to reflect his image so that you can serve him as a unique individual. In Genesis 2, 7, we find this verified. And the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul. There it is. God created your soul. Living soul. And you might have heard me say in past references, the soul will never die. The body will die, but the soul will never die. While it’s evident there are many different body types, what is also true is that every body houses a living soul. In fact, the real you is invisible since the soul is not observable to mankind. Only God can see your soul. So it appears that we all have the same soul format though. We have mentality, which God created to give us the ability to think, logic, reason, comprehend. He gave us free will, which is called volition, we can choose. And we also possess a conscience and a self-consciousness. This is why the scriptures tell us that the real person is identified not by what he looks like, but by what he thinks. Proverbs 23, 7, For as he thinketh in his heart, so he is. Did you know one of Satan’s objectives is to capture your thoughts? In Proverbs 4, 23, Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. One of the main objectives of a new Christian is to change the way he thinks. And this involves a total renovation of the mentality of the soul. Forget not this. Don’t forget the soul has mentality. The soul has volition. The soul has a conscience and a self-consciousness. So what does the Bible say we have to change the way we think after we get saved? In Romans 12, two and three, don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that’s among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God has dealt to every one of that man the measure of faith. This particular passage I just read to you tells us that a spiritually wise soul does not think like the world thinks. It’s a call for you to stay out of cosmic indoctrination and rather to renovate your thoughts in order that we can understand and obey God’s will for our lives. The enemy that we face most often is our very own arrogance, such as thinking that we know what’s best for our lives. I’ve seen that many, many times. Even my children, I know what’s best for my life, not what the Bible says. Daddy, I know what’s best. And when you do that and justify in your own lustful desires, you’re in trouble. So the enemy most often is your own arrogance, thinking that you know more than what God knows. Even though God may tell you don’t do a certain thing, you do it anyhow because you justify why it’s okay. I want you to understand how important it is that you be careful what you feed into your soul’s mentality. I just had some lunch. I had a little lasagna, leftover lasagna my wife had. And I enjoyed it. But you have to be careful what you put in your stomach, yes, but you’ve got to be really careful what you put in your soul’s mentality. Notice the secret to having peace in your soul, and you might not realize this, but it’s related to what you think. In Isaiah 26 three, you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind, that’s the mentality of the soul, whose mind is stayed on you, thee, because he trusts in you, that’s faith rest. So there’s the secret to having peace in your life. Faith rest, keeping your mind on the word of God. The mentality of the soul must be programmed to overcome the sin nature’s appeal. The natural behavior of the sin nature is to allow the mentality of your soul to justify you being disobedient, not only to man’s laws, but to God’s laws. But whenever an individual accepts Christ as their Savior, interestingly enough, their past history does not automatically disappear. Those old thoughts, those old desires that you did before you got saved, they must be contained by learning to think differently. Isaiah 43, 18, remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old. So we can always ask the Holy Spirit to make us aware of any sin that’s going unnoticed in our life. It’s possible that you got involved in something you don’t even realize is sin sometimes. In Psalm 139, verse 23, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And that means look into my soul, see what I’m thinking, and see if there’s any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. The Bible refers to the mentality of the soul as your heart, as well as your mind. There’s a couple of different words here. It’s in the heart of man that sin takes root. It’s in your heart that sin takes root. Mark 7, 21, for from without, out of the heart, out of the heart of men proceeds evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. It all comes out of the heart. The other word for that word heart is the Greek word cardia, K-A-R-D-I-A. That’s the English word heart. In medicine, we use the word cardiac or cardiology. That’s from the word heart. So actually, the scriptures identify the mentality of our soul with two different type words. One word is the word nous, N-O-U-S. The other is the word heart, K-A-R-D-I-A. The nous refers to the intellect that initiates our thoughts and our attitudes. In Romans 7.23, but I see another law in my members, warring against the laws of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. In other words, I’ve got a sin nature. And so my sin nature is trying to take control of what I think is what he’s saying. It’s clear from Philippians 2.5 we’re to think in our minds exactly the same way that Jesus Christ thought in his mind. That’s in Philippians 2.5. Let this same type of thinking, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. So the victory over sin in your life is not in the body, but rather in the mind. Comprehending what’s taking place in your life requires you understanding what you’re dealing with. It’s easy to be misled if you don’t have some discernment, which is another way of saying spiritual insight. That’s what the Bible calls wisdom. Unbelievers, those who have not believed in Christ, are at a disadvantage in the cosmic conflict since their minds are empty. They have no basis to make a correct decision. In Ephesians 4, 17, this I say therefore in testifying the Lord that you do not walk, that’s live, don’t live like Gentiles live in the vanity of their mind. That word vanity in the original language is pronounced mataotes, and it actually means an emptiness, emptiness. So referring to a soul void, get that word soul void. A soul void is actually a vacuum where the outside pressure is greater than the inside pressure. My daughter one time came home and showed me a science experiment where she took a boiled egg that she had peeled and took a match and dropped it down a Coke bottle and put the boiled egg over the mouth of the Coke. When the match burned up all of the oxygen in the bottle, it was like an invisible finger pushed that egg down through that bottleneck of that Coke that popped in the bottle. That’s the outside pressure being greater than the inside pressure. So this is what you have to remember. A soul void is a vacuum in your soul because there’s no soul resistance. And the individual has no chance to overcome whatever the cosmic system throws at him. Then we get into soul slavery. And that’s a result of ignoring God’s advantages and selling yourself into the cosmic system where you become a victim of your own choices, not a victim of your circumstances. Hosea 8, 7 says, they have sown to the wind and they will reap the whirlwind. When God created us, he gave us a soul. And I’m not talking about the rhythm and the blues and the dance and all that sort of stuff. He gave you a soul, which means you have the ability to think and comprehend. Again, he gave you volition, which means he lets you make your decisions. You are the choice maker. Do you know what your choices are? That’s a legitimate question I want to ask you today. Do you know what your choices are? I can tell you your first choice is to receive Christ as your Savior. It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make. What thank you of Christ? Is he or is he not the son of God? Did he or did he not go to the cross and pay for your sins? Will you or will you not believe it and receive him as your savior? You gotta remember that. That’s the first and most important thing, okay? When God created you, he gave you that soul. the ability to comprehend, the ability to choose. The second great decision in your soul is your choice to learn what God has provided for you because you’re living behind enemy lines in the devil’s world. So you need to understand your position in Christ and understand your enemies, and that’s critical if you hope to glorify God both in time and eternity. We know we got three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And if you’re going to win this war, you’ve got to be able to overcome what they throw at you. So listen to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1.10. I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no division among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment. Did you get that? What he’s telling them is you’re fractured in your soul in your congregation. Your congregation has a soul fracture. You’re not all speaking the same thing. There’s divisions. Some of you on this side of the park and some of you on the other side of the park. But the Bible says a Christian needs to be perfectly joined together in the same mind. We need to have the same thought content. What is that? It’s the mind of Christ. This simply means that unless they’re all on the same page mentally, there would be no hope of keeping that church bound together. And by the way, this is one way Satan can destroy a local congregation, by getting people into conflicting viewpoints. This is also exactly how Satan fractures a nation such as the United States of America. And I think we can see that in our current history, We definitely have a fractured nation. We don’t all speak the same thing, and there are certainly divisions among us since we don’t all think the same things. The number one national problem in our country is a fractured soul. What used to be considered evil is now considered good, and what used to be thought of as good is now considered evil. Social issues are now more prominent than spiritual issues. Do you hear that? Social issues are now more prominent than spiritual issues. The word of God is ignored in many different households and sometimes even in churches. And different thinking leads to different agendas. Even more disturbing is that many pastors today are now performers using antics that are just absolutely disgusting. You are the only one who can reverse the trend in this nation. You are the only one to patch up the crack in our soul in the nation. Not by electing a certain individual, that’s not the answer, but by electing to take your very own spiritual life to the highest level possible. Then and only then will you be able to consider that you are part of the invisible pivot that God’s going to use to deliver this nation from what’s coming. That what’s coming is a battle for the soul of America. And it’s just starting. I promise you, it’s just starting. Praise God for those in leadership who understand what I’m talking about. Hosea says, who is wise? Hosea 14.9. Who is wise? And who shall understand these things? Prudent is he that knows them, for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein. Are you one of the wise people that God’s speaking about there? That’s my thought for you today. Do you have enough doctrine in your soul to determine what is right and what is wrong? Have you been lured into some sort of emotional Christianity where you believe that if you just go to church and get the joy, joy, joy down in your heart that you’re having a worshiping experience? Unless you’re learning and applying God’s word in your life, you’re going to have a stunted soul, a stunted soul. Your soul’s never gonna grow up. Because your soul was designed by God to have information. That’s what your conscience is about, where you store your norms and standards. You’re supposed to have norms and standards, starting with your parents, where they teach you don’t do this and don’t do that. Brush your teeth, comb your hair, take a bath. Don’t act like that, don’t say that. Your parents are giving you norms and standards. If you don’t get that, then you grow up just a uncontrollable soul, a person that has no norms and standards, a person that’ll do whatever they want to do and think they get away with it. That’s what’s happening in America today. We have a fractured congregation of people in this nation. whose soul has no norms and standards because it’s been eaten by scar tissue. Scar tissue means their hearts are hard. There are people in this country that’ll kill you and not think twice about it, laugh about it, drive by in a car, shoot a bunch of bullets out of the car, spray gunfire everywhere and kill. It doesn’t make any difference who they kill. That’s a bad soul. We have to get that changed. Only one way to do it, not elect a certain politician, not send in the military. There’s got to be a soul revival. There’s got to be a soul awakening. There’s got to be a changing of the soul for America. That has to happen with you, starts with you. As goes your spiritual life, so goes the future of this country. So how is your soul today? Do you have a bitter soul? Do you have an embattled soul? Do you have a wounded soul? Or are you growing in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Do you have a strong soul? Do you have doctrine in your soul? Do you have the filling of the Holy Spirit? Do you understand that? And do you understand the call to the gospel and how to share it with other individuals? That’s what we’re going to need. That’s what you must do. You must be that individual who God uses to heal the fractured soul of America. And you must be prepared to do whatever it takes. Don’t be dumb. Don’t be stupid. But be faithful. Be faithful. And the Lord will guide you. He will direct your path. He will show you what he wants you to do and how he wants you to do it. But remember this, God uses prepared people. He doesn’t use idiots. And if you think you can make it up, you can’t make up God’s plan. If you don’t know it, he’s not going to use you. He doesn’t need you confusing the issue. He doesn’t need you telling somebody in order to get saved, you got to quit smoking. In order to get saved, you got to repent of all your sins. That’s crazy. You can’t do that. It’s impossible. Besides that, the word repent means to change your mind, not feel sorry about what you’ve done. You can tell God you’re not gonna sin again, but you will, because you have a genetically formed sin nature. So you’ve got to understand what the Bible teaches, and then teach it correctly, give it correctly, and let your friends know, let your neighbors know that God loves them, he has a wonderful plan for their life, and that plan starts with them believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the only thing that will salvage this nation. That’s the only thing that will put together this fractured nation. is the Word of God. So I hope you’re listening. I pray you’re paying attention. And I pray you’ll come back next week, same time, same time. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:19

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.