Join Rick Hughes on The Flatline as he delves into the intricate concept of the FLOT line, a spiritual metaphor aimed at solving life’s inevitable problems. Discover the ten unique problem-solving devices that act as a main line of resistance in your soul, designed to transform adversity into opportunity while maintaining a relaxed mental attitude. Understand the pivotal role of thought in Christianity and how it shapes one’s spiritual journey and overall life success.
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 01 :
Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes. I did say FLOT, F-L-O-T, not flat, not F-L-A-T, but FLOT. That stands for a forward line of troops. What we’re trying to do on this radio show is to use that military metaphor to explain to you how God has designed a problem-solving system for your life. If you will learn these problem-solving devices called the FLOT line, 10 unique problem-solving devices, then they will act like a main line of resistance in your soul, in your thinking, where you can stop the outside source of adversity before it ever becomes the inside source of stress. No one can take away any adversity. It’s going to happen. It has to happen. But you don’t have to live under worry. You don’t have to live under fear. You don’t have to live under anger. You don’t have to live under bitterness. You can live the Christian life, which is a relaxed mental attitude, occupied with Christ, having great joy and great happiness in the midst of whatever you may be facing if you use the problem-solving devices. So God gave you two ends. You’re sitting on one, and maybe you’re thinking with one, but success in your life is going to depend which one you use. If you use heads, well, maybe you’ll win. If you lose tails, you’re just going to sit there and lose. So we give you accurate information. We don’t give you human speculation. We’re not after any solicitations. We’re just giving you some information so you can verify and identify the plan of God through what I tell you, through what I teach you. And then if you want to orient and adjust to the plan, that’s really up to you. My job is to be accurate, to get it right, to not to go off on some tangent, not to get into politics, but to give you the pure Word of God. Your job, if you decide to take it, is to renovate your thinking. Stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance, Romans 12, 3 says, but think in terms of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. This is where you have to understand the Christian life is lived in your head. It starts with what you think. All of your motives, all of your intentions, all of your desires start with a thought that And when God wants to check you out, he’s going to look at what you’re thinking because the Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And the real you is not what you are on the outside, it’s what you are in your head. That’s where you live the Christian life. And when your body ceases to operate, as you get older and begin to shut down and things wear out and break and eventually you cross over into death, your thinking goes with you. That’s part of your soul. Your soul goes to heaven. Your mentality goes to heaven. Your spirit goes to heaven. Your body goes to the grave to await a resurrection body. But your thinking will go with you, and that’s the greatest treasure you could ever possess is the treasure of God’s Word because it gives you tremendous insight and discernment that other people don’t have. That’s why we push it so hard and tell you the most important thing you can do if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We’re going up on 800 radio shows soon. We’re up at 791 today. 791 Sundays we’ve been broadcasting this radio show across America. And what an honor, what a joy, what a delight it’s been for me to do that. That’s 791 Sundays. I don’t know how many years that is. You can figure it out. But as we come into the 800, I’ve been looking for influencers. I’ve been talking about those of you that can be an influencer in your periphery. You may be a mother or father. You may be a teacher or a coach. You may be a businessman. You may be an entrepreneur. You may even be incarcerated, but you can be an influencer. And that’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking to find those people who want to grow so much and learn God’s Word so bad that they’re willing to stand in the gap and be an influencer for God during these times that we live in. Because it’s obvious that this country cannot survive if we continue to split down the middle with political and racial strife. Every day there’s something new. I have a radio show that plays in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and I see that in Kenosha there’s terrible riots going on today. Racial strife. We can’t continue to live like this. If you add to these things the loss of divine establishment principles like freedom, marriage, family, and nationalism, and you add losing the rule of law that we’ve prospered under for so many years, then you can see it coming through the trends of history. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s gonna happen. If we continue down this road, and possibly we will, we’re not gonna have a country much longer. So we Christians must not lose sight of our mission. Our mission in these changing times is for us to be agents of change. The devil certainly has his agents of change running around, insisting that people change something, insisting on something that’s impossible to get sometimes. But you can be an agent of change in your own life. by means of your invisible and historical impact for God. If you do that, the wonderful thing about being an agent of change, and we’re gonna talk about it a little bit more, that’s an influencer, that’s what you are. The wonderful thing about that is in Revelation 2.10, the Bible says, if you will be faithful unto death, then I will give you a crown of life. This wonderful crown of life will be given to many of you listening today for your consistent fidelity in growth and application of the word of God in your life because that makes you an invisible hero and that gives you a national impact even though you may never get out of your city or never get out of your state. Your spiritual life is what counts. That decoration of the crown of life is awarded to invisible heroes just like you Those for maximum production of divine good. You remember what divine good is, don’t you? Human good is things you do in the energy of the flesh. A Christian can do that. And divine good are things you do in the power of the Holy Spirit. All this is separated at the judgment seat of Christ in 1 Corinthians 3, where human good is called wood, hay, and stubble, and divine good is called gold, silver, and precious stones. Everything that you do as far as prayer, as far as giving, as far as attending church, as far as teaching a Sunday school lesson, as far as anything for God will be evaluated. Did you do it in the energy of the flesh with known sin in your life? Then it’s human good. Or did you do it under the mentorship of the Holy Spirit produced and manufactured by Him? Then it’s divine good. How can you know if you’re filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, the Bible tells us if we rebound, 1 John 1, 9, if we’re faithful and just to confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. He always does. And that’s the key to being filled with the Holy Spirit. Because what happens when you sin is you quench the Holy Spirit and you grieve the Holy Spirit. He’s not able to do his job. And so the first problem-solving device we have as believers is how to solve our problem of sin and failure. And if we go to God, if we confess our sins, the Bible says, then he will be faithful and just to forgive us. When God cleanses you from sin, immediately you’re filled with the Holy Spirit. When you sin and go out against God, if you use mental attitude sin such as worry or fear, anger, hostility, or if it’s a sin of the tongue like gossip, maligning, criticizing, backbiting, lying, or if it’s an overt sin, something you may do overtly like stealing or infidelity. If you do these things, immediately the Holy Spirit is quenched and grieved in your life. So you have to take stock every day, every moment of the day, just like I do. Am I under control of the Holy Spirit right now, or am I letting my flesh control me? Because the Bible tells me that this is the answer. If I will walk in the Spirit, then the flesh can’t control me. So if you’re going to be an influencer, you must be filled with the Holy Spirit. And if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then you’re going to produce divine good, and you will execute the plan of God. And you can be what we talked about last week. I introduced you to a word called yeshuran, the yeshuran believer. That’s the believer who is a mature believer. He’s gone through spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy. He’s in spiritual maturity, headed for evidence testing in his life, the yeshuran believer. And the crown of life is awarded for consistent filling of the Holy Spirit, consistent perception of God’s word in your life on a daily basis, and the consistent use of God’s problem-solving devices in your life. Your spiritual life is the solution to the continued freedom and prosperity that the United States of America has enjoyed for so many years. We know that because 2 Chronicles 7.14, we’ve heard this verse many times. It said, if my people, and of course this was written to the Jew, but we can make an application to us today. If my people, believers… which are called by my name Christians, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear their prayer and I will forgive them and heal their land. This is a solution to what’s going on in America today. It’s not a politician that can change it. It’s not a party that can change it, Democratic or Republic. It is you. You are the agent of change. You are the only one that can change it as you have an invisible impact in history. So those of you that are faithful, I salute you. I salute you that you’re not being distracted by these things that are going on. I salute you that you are being faithful to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I salute you that you are hanging in there, and I’m very proud of you. But you must maintain your focus on spiritual advance because each one of us, you, me, and our friends, we have the ability to change the course of history in this country if we will allow our spiritual growth and our spiritual life to have an impact with the gospel message. That’s right. We can change the course of history. We have the most powerful weapon at our hand. Paul said, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it, it, it is the power of God unto salvation. So the gospel message is the greatest power known to man. But we also have a Bible, and the Bible says the word of God is alive and powerful. So we have two power options available for us, the gospel message and The good news that Jesus Christ redeemed us out of the slave market of sin. The good news that we’ve been reconciled to God through faith alone in Christ alone. And the good news that we have the word of God as a treasure in our souls that has a national and international impact. So each of us must act as an agent of change where we stand firmly on God’s word in every area of our life. I don’t know if you know I played a little bit of football at the University of Alabama. and i played only one year before i went down the highway highway but my coach was bear bryant the famous paul bear bryant today it’s coach nick saban and a tremendous coach he is but when bear bryant took over at alabama after leaving texas a&m and they’ve never forgiven him for that i promise you bryant said here’s what he said he said i’m not worried about whether i’m going to win or lose i know i’m going to win and i know that And I’m not worried about my assistant coaches because I know they’re winners. And I’m not worried about whether Alabama is going to win. I know that. The only thing I don’t know is how many of you in this room are winners. And how many of you will stand with us? That’s what I don’t know either. Who are the winners? Who are the people that have the integrity and the fidelity to stand with God during these times, not get distracted by political discourse, not get distracted by prosperity, but to stand firm with the gospel message and have an invisible impact? You know, the devil has his own agent provocateurs waiting in the wings. He does agent provocateur. Maybe you never heard that word before. The agent provocateur is, we know him as an antichrist, political and social fixer who’s going to come onto the scene eventually, who’s going to offer change in times of world turmoil. And when does he come? Well, some people say the rapture must be close. Look at what’s going on. Look at what’s happening here. What you’re seeing happening is the demise of the United States of America, not the demise of the world. You’re seeing a country that has been great fall to its knees, being brought to its knees. But when will this antichrist show up? He’s prophesied in the Bible to oppose the Lord Jesus Christ and substitute himself in the place of Christ before Christ returns for the second advent. In 2 Thessalonians 2, verses one through five, I’ll read it. It’s rather lengthy, but if you’ll hang with me, I’ll explain it. It says this, Paul wrote, now brethren concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him. Remember it’s in two parts. The first part is when he comes in the air called the exit resurrection, 2 Thessalonians chapter four and the other part is the second advent when he returns to the earth and sets foot on the earth and he comes back to set up the millennial kingdom for 1,000 years with which we will be back with him ruling and reigning with him. So he says, when concerning the coming of the Lord and our gathered together with him, we ask you not to be shaken in your mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if it was from us, as though the day of Christ had already happened. See, some people had said it had already taken place. And he said, no, don’t let anybody deceive you by means of that, for the day will not come unless the falling away comes first. And the man of sin is revealed, that’s the agent provocateur, the son of perdition, the one who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that, let me turn the page here for you, he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. This happens in the middle of the tribulation when the Jewish temple is rebuilt. And he will walk into the temple and he will say, I’m God, worship me. And the Jews have been told when that happens to flee for their life. And then Paul went on to say, don’t you remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things and you know what restrains him now. In other words, you know why he’s not here yet. So that in his time he will be revealed. Well, the rapture has to take place first, and the Holy Spirit has to be removed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, and only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. That’s the Holy Spirit. And then the lawless one will be revealed, that’s the agent provocateur, the Antichrist, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth at the second advent and destroy with the brightness of his coming at the second advent. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, with all signs, with all lying wonders. and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because here’s where the arrogance of the unbeliever gets him in trouble, because they did not receive the love of the truth so that they might be saved. And it’s for this reason that God will send them strong delusion so they will not believe, and they will believe the lie, and that they may all be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. That agent provocateur is a person who acts to entice another person to commit an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act so as to ruin the reputation or entice legal action against the target or a group they belong to. We have a lot of agent provocateurs running around in America today as I’m talking to you. Let me read it to you again. An agent provocateur, we call them demonstrators, is a person who acts to entice other people to commit an illegal or rash act or falsely implicates them in partaking in an illegal act so as to ruin the reputation or entice legal action against the target or a group they belong to. In Webster’s dictionary, he’s called an agitator. He’s called a demagogue, an exciter, a firebrand, a fomenter, an incendiary insider, an instigator, a rabble riser. Who are these people? They are the foot soldiers of what we call the oligarchy. Oligarchy, O-L-I-G-A-R-T-H-Y. Who are the oligarchy? They’re the small number of wealthy, influential individuals who seek to control the course of history in their generation. From the Greek word, we get oligarchia, from oligos, which is a few, and arco, which means to command. So it’s a compound word. It means to command, a few command. And it’s a form of power structure in which power rests with very few influential families, often tyrannical and oppressive people, and often being ruled by the rich. And Satan is the master oligarchia, and he is the agent provocateur, and he has agent provocateurs in the world. They are called, and I’m gonna introduce you to a term here, they are called cosmic evangelists. Now, I’m an evangelist for the gospel, the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection, redeeming us out of the slave market of sin and reconciling us to God. But these cosmic evangelists, these agent provocateurs, they seek to control and influence the world using a well-planned attack. And it’s all predicted in Ephesians 6, 11 through 17, where it says, put on the armor of God so you can stand against the strategy of the devil. One of the main objectives of the agent provocateur is to infiltrate, and listen carefully now, to infiltrate and influence Christian churches, to infiltrate and influence Bible study groups, as well as influence political discourse. Paul had his own agent provocateurs in his ministry. In 2 Timothy 4, 14 through 15, one of his name was Alexander. He was a coppersmith. Paul said, he did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou wary also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. In 2 Timothy 4, 3 and 4, Paul wrote, for the time will come when they, will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers, and they will have itching ears, and they will turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables. Anyone who rejects the truth of the word of God fits into this category very neatly here. He’s called a fool, and he thinks he’s smarter than God. Proverbs talks all about this, and it’s a disaster, it’s a tragedy, but it’s happening today in America where God’s word is scoffed at, laughed at, rejected, and somehow or another someone thinks through a progressive or a socialistic idea that we can make America a nice place. You can’t because people have sin natures. Even the agent provocateurs that promote this stuff have sin natures. and no one can control the sin nature except God the Holy Spirit. In 2 Timothy 3, 8, and 9, Paul talked about Janus and Jambres. These guys, these weird guys, were found in the book of Exodus. They were Egyptian sorcerers who opposed Moses before Pharaoh when Moses went to say, let my people go. And he said, as they withstood Moses, so do they also resist the truth today. Men who have corrupt minds, men that are reprobate concerning the faith, and they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifested unto all men as theirs also was, as Janice and Jambres was. So we see that these agent provocateurs have always been around. They’re the agents of Satan, the oligarchy, the one who controls history on this earth. Remember, he’s the god of this world. This is not our home. We are going to heaven. Ouranos is where we belong, according to the Greek New Testament, not this earth. We’re just strangers. We’re pilgrims passing through. And while we’re here, 2 Timothy 2.15 tells us we need to study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. That’s so we don’t get sucked into this stuff. We don’t get sucked into political discourse. We don’t get sucked into religious self-righteousness. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. That’s exactly what goes on in political discourse. and the world will eat it, and their word will eat, what they say, what they teach will eat, as doth a canker, or cancer, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth erred, saying the resurrection is past already, And they have discouraged and overthrown the faith of some. So this same pattern, the same pattern I’m talking to you about in misrepresenting God’s word, misrepresenting the truth, is seen in all these verses. It’s rejection of the truth and substituting it with a lie. You know, it’s amazing how gullible the arrogant and the inadequate really are. Because truth is still being rejected today in American society. And the lure of happiness is promoted today. by the lie of humanism and progressive government, which is nothing but socialism, cooked over. Many solid sound pastors are even being picked off one by one, lured by their claim of extra biblical enlightenment. It’s funny, but knowledge is an aphrodisiac to the arrogant rejecter of the truth. And a lot of people are looking for something extravagant, something exciting, something new. And what’s there is the Word of God. It’s always been there. If you look, there’s plenty of exciting and new stuff there. But oh no, people have got to get into this sort of stuff. And these type people, these ministers, they are apparent amazing breakthroughs. Lure them. They lure their flock members who follow along based on the fact that they trust the preacher. They trust the individual. And before you know it, off they go. And they lose their impact. They’re not agents of change anymore. 1 John 4 once said, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they’re from God or not. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. That’s the impact of religion in the world. the greatest impact of religion in the world. And this is Satan’s ace trump. This is what he uses politically, economically, socially, is religion. And John’s not ordering his audience to disbelieve everybody, but he’s saying not to believe in everyone. It has to be a way to check out the information in order to see if the agent provocateur is trying to lure you with his personality or trying to get you into some false system of doctrine. When it comes to some new biblical claim, you must always use the caveat impetor, which is Latin for let the buyer beware. You must do your due diligence in regards to claims made by ministers of God because we of all people of faith have at our resources hours and hours and hours of the word of God taught by solid, sound, biblical pastor teachers. And so we are not to deviate from sound doctrine. Paul warned Timothy in 2 Timothy 1.13, retain the standard of sound words which you heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. So you and I have no excuse to be naive because a mature believer with insight and discernment, that’s wisdom, should be mentally alert. We should be aware of what’s going on because we are responsible for our own spiritual life and God expects us to guard our souls and We are not to deviate from sound doctrine, and we’re not to drift from grace. The appeal to experience and abandoning of reason and faith gives ground for exploiting the immature believer. And you gotta be very careful here. In 1 Timothy 4, one and two, finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus Christ, That as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still even more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. The agent provocateur appeal is normally conducted through arrogance, but it can be disguised as flattery or affection in the cosmic system, politics. Suck you into politics. Oh, we need you to vote. We need you to get involved in politics. I talked to a dear friend yesterday who spent three hours with a political person, and it was the most boring three hours he ever spent because he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. This person thinks that politics is going to change the world, and it won’t. Cosmic system friendship is very dangerous, the Bible says, because it says evil friends corrupt good morals. That friend may be moral, he may be immoral, but the result is the same. They will sucker you into the cosmic system and you will lose your impact in this world and you will not be an agent of change. So please listen to me. Listen to what I’m telling you. We’re at the crossroads of history and it’s time for us to step up and be agents of change. It’s time for us to step up and be influencers of It’s time for us to commit ourselves to the Word of God and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It’s time for you to get under a well-qualified pastor and begin a consistent study of growth. Are you listening? Are you paying attention? I hope so, because the course of history depends on you. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
