Dive into this week’s episode of The Flatline, where host Rick Hughes explores the significance of becoming a spiritual quiet professional. Learn about the concept of living a stress-free Christian life by harnessing the 10 unique problem-solving devices found in the Bible. Hughes emphasizes the importance of not being manipulated but rather educated and inspired to follow God’s plan for your life. This episode will provide insights into the mechanics of a spiritual life and how you can grow in grace and knowledge.
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 please stick around. It’ll be 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, some education. But no manipulation because we don’t try to con you here. We’re not asking you for money. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We’re not going to ask you to give it up, fess it up, do anything like that. But we will ask you to listen up. Listen as I try to verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if I can do that, you have the freedom and you have the privacy to orient and adjust to the plan. That’s up to you. The Flatline radio show that you’re listening to has been going on now for over 12, 15 years, I guess close to 15 years. It’s been my great honor, my great privilege that God has given me to bring this radio show to you without any charge, without any solicitation of money, and we’ve always watched the Lord pay for it because I believe that God’s in it and God will pay for it. My staff and I believe that so we don’t make an issue out of money. We just do our job and let the Lord handle the rest. The flight line is about the forward line of troops, F-L-O-T, forward line of troops. And here we’re teaching 10 unique problem-solving devices found in the Bible. This is something my pastor taught me years and years ago. But if you learn these 10 problem-solving devices, then you can stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside source of stress. That’s why we always say adversity is of course inevitable, but stress is definitely avoidable, optional. You don’t have to have stress. There’s a better way to live, and it’s called the Christian life. It’s a unique life. It’s a lifestyle that captivates the mind of Christ where there is no worry, no fear, no animosity, no anger, no bitterness. It’s a great way to live. So the Flatline teaches you this when you learn these 10 problem-solving devices, starting with the use of rebound, how to confess your sin to God, and the filling of the Holy Spirit, how to control your flesh, and the faith rest drill, how to stand on the promises of God. Grace orientation, biblical orientation, having a personal sense of destiny, developing virtue love for God and virtue love for others, and sharing the happiness of God, even being occupied with Christ. These are all problems solving devices taught in the scripture, and that’s what we try to major on this show. So today, let me remind you, if you don’t know what these are, we have a book called Christian Problem Solving from our website. You can order it. It’s free. It doesn’t cost anything. Christian Problem Solving. Simply go to rickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org. Not Richard Hughes Ministries. That’s not me. That’s another person. rickhughesministries.org. There you’ll find our website. There you can order our books free of charge, and you can even listen to some of them, play audio books on the website. as our announcer will read those books to you. I remind you that we have transcripts of all radio shows available in printed form, if you’d like to have that, going back to 2019. So take a look at it. Order them if you’d like. And let’s get into what we want to talk about today. Today I have something unique I want to teach you. I believe you’ll enjoy this. It’s called You Being a Spiritual Quiet Professional. You, you, me, you, both of us, being spiritual quiet professionals. You say, what is that about? Well, throughout the course of history, our Father has raised up, our God has raised up certain individuals who had tremendous leadership dynamics. Those individuals, be they men or women, were able to guide us through troubled times and bring calm in the face of storm. Could be a political leader, could be a military leader, could be a business professional, even pastor teachers. Some of these people have tremendous influence on those whom they direct. And I believe most of these types are usually not necessarily noise makers, but rather what I call the quiet professionals. So this morning I’d like to encourage you to join the ranks of the spiritual quiet professional, the SQP, spiritual quiet professionals. Many of the principles that I’m going to give you during this study I will share with you. They were first taught to me by a dear friend and pastor whom I’ve actually lost contact with him, but they were ultimately given by God the Holy Spirit through him through the pages of Scripture. So I took notes on them years ago. And some of those notes I’ll share with you today. But notice what Paul says to young Timothy in Philippians 2, 19 through 21. Here’s what he said. I’m going to read it to you. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I may be encouraged when I know your state of affairs. For I have no one like-minded, as a key to it, like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. For most all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. Now notice the trust that Paul had in Timothy because they were like-minded. And he knew Timothy would care for the church at Philippi and not seek to promote himself. So here’s a principle. If you want to be one of these spiritual, quiet professionals that I’m talking about, here’s a verse you must understand. 1 Thessalonians 4, 11 and 12. It is this. I want you to aspire to lead a quiet life To mind your own business. That’s right. Live a quiet life. Mind your own business and work with your own hands as we commanded you so that you may walk properly towards those who are outside and that you may lack nothing. Did you notice quiet life? That you mind your own business, work with your own hands, and walk properly? These are several critical traits of the spiritual quiet professional. He’s to live quietly and mind his own business, work with his own hands, behave properly towards outsiders, and be dependent on no one. Now don’t misunderstand, Paul’s not telling them to become hermits, but rather to have a lifestyle of contentment which is free of drama and free of stress. And he encouraged personal accountability. for them to be diligent in their efforts and responsibilities. And he is especially concerned that the unbelievers in the community see an example of integrity and self-sufficiency. So here’s a key thought I want you to remember. The SQP, spiritual quiet professional, is blameless. No one’s gonna find fault with him. Listen to Psalm 37, 37. Mark the blameless man. Hear it? Mark the blameless man and observe the upright man, for the future of that man is peace. So the spiritual, quiet professional I’m talking about is blameless. He’s not a troublemaker. Here is the lifestyle of the spiritual, quiet professional taught in the book of Micah, chapter six, verse eight. He has shown you, O man, what is good, And what does the Lord require of you? Here it is, now listen. But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. To do justly, to walk mercy, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. So a spiritual quiet professional, let’s take the word spiritual. A spiritual person always puts his mission first. And your mission, should you choose to complete, is to do what? 2 Peter 3.18, grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This mandate cannot be fulfilled in the energy of your flesh. It requires a supernatural helper, the one the Lord Jesus Christ assigned to each one of us in John 14.26. Do you remember that verse? But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things I said to you. So each one of us that are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are indwelled by the Holy Spirit according to Ephesians 1.13 for the purpose of enabling us to execute our mission. And this requires not only the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but actually the filling of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5.18. And you should know by now that sin will break fellowship with God and quench the power of the Holy Spirit and influence in our lives. Thus, the first problem-solving device every believer has to learn is how to recover from sin and regain fellowship with God, because our fellowship with God is maintained by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit. And if you have quenched the Holy Spirit by personal sin and grieved the Holy Spirit, you’re not in fellowship with God. You’re still in the relationship. You haven’t lost your salvation, but you are not in fellowship with God. So the material believer that I’m talking about, the spiritual quiet professional, he has insight into all situations and is able to appraise what’s happening to him or what’s happening around him because his values are based on biblical standards. which allow him to focus on the invisible, not the visible. Did you hear that? You got to learn to look at the invisible, not the visible. Satan’s good at throwing up a smoke screen. Listen to 2 Corinthians 4.18. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things that were seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So when you use your 10 problem-solving devices, Then the spiritual quiet professional is able to live a consistent spiritual life which is available to any person who receives Christ as their savior. Unfortunately, not all believers will see the need and don’t take time to grow to be the spiritual quiet professional. That’s what grieves me. They’re not interested. They’re distracted. They got too many things going on and they’re not willing to grow into that sort of person. Spiritual, there’s a difference between being spiritual and being spiritually mature now. If you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, with no unconfessed sin in your life, using the rebound technique, problem solving device number one, you are spiritual. But the spiritually maturing believer, that’s a different person. Not only is he filled with the Holy Spirit, but he has a maximum amount of the word of God stored in the stream of consciousness circulating in his soul so that he can use it. It’s called biblical wisdom. So you got that? That’s great. Now what about quiet? Spiritual quiet professional. What does quiet mean? Well, in 1 Thessalonians 4.11, Paul wrote this, that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, mind your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. This is a great picture of an even-tempered, poised, self-composed, balanced believer, which is what you’re supposed to be. An even-tempered, poised, that means thinking under pressure, self-composed, balanced believer. The amazing benefits of the spiritual quiet professional’s life is evident to everyone who sees it. In James 3, 17, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then it’s peaceable, then it’s gentle and willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. So as a spiritual quiet professional, you will find yourself being level-headed, temperate, behaving properly towards unbelievers, using impersonal love, not judging other people, not judging their opinions nor their convictions, because your life as an invisible hero will be a powerful witness to those whom you come in contact with. You don’t even have to preach to them. They can observe your difference in your lifestyle, the way you think, the way you act, and they will be inquisitive about what brings that alert. Why do you do these things? Many believers are simply Christian auditors. That’s the bad part about it. Many believers are simply Christian auditors. Like the student who simply audits the class and never gets credit since they take no exam to see what they retain. Christian auditors simply hear the message at church and don’t apply what is taught and makes that person an auditor. An auditor, remember a Christian auditor is not growing, he’s not taking the class for credit. He’s simply hearing the message at church and not applying what is taught, and that makes him an auditor. Remember these words in Ecclesiastes 5, too. Don’t be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven and you on earth. Therefore, let your words be few, few, few. As a spiritual, quiet professional, you will be accustomed to difficulty in the devil’s world, and you won’t complain about it. You won’t whine about it. You will not be garrulous, that means excessively talkative, or you won’t be verbose. Listen to Proverbs 10, 19, talking about being garrulous or verbose. In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. That’s the quiet professional. You may ask yourself why I use the word professional. Why do I call a believer a professional person? Well, here’s why. I use the word professional for a mature believer. So please allow me to remind you of our friend Gideon in the Bible. The man God used to deliver Israel from the Midianites is reported in Judges chapter six through chapter eight. In this historical event, God eliminated many of the Israeli soldiers because of their lack of professionalism. I mean, Gideon had a tremendous army, but they were not professional. Listen to Judges 7, 2, and 3, and this is where you can see the lack of professionalism. And the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel will claim glory for itself against me, saying, my own hand deliver me. So to proclaim in the hearing of the people saying this, whoever’s fearful, whoever’s afraid, turn around, go home, leave, go back to Mount Gilead. And 22,000 of the people left, 10,000 remained. So 22,000 quit right there. 22,000 were excused from battle since they were afraid to fight in combat. because they would have been useless anyhow. They would have become casualties very quickly. They would have been dead on the battlefield before the battle even started, even from the heart attacks, thinking about it. But notice, however, there’s still 10,000, 10,000 well-armed warriors, but they lack professionalism. I’m gonna show you how. It’s very interesting. Listen, Judges 7, verses four and six. But the Lord said to Gideon, the people are still too many, that’s 10,000, Bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Then it will be that of whom I say to you, this one shall go with you, the same shall go with you. And of whomever I say to you, this one shall not go with you, the same shall not go. So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set him apart by himself. Likewise, anyone who gets down on his knees to drink And the number of those who lapped putting their mouth to the water, now keep this in mind, they laid their weapons down, they’re on both knees, and they’re lapping up the water. These are the ones that lack professionalism. So the Lord is going to send them home. And the ones that didn’t lap are the ones that got down on one knee, put their hand to their mouth, and kept their weapon in the other hand. And there was only 300 of them left, but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. Did you get it? So out of the 10,000, only 300 were well-qualified believers. They kept their weapon in one hand and knelt down on one knee and put their hand in the water and got a drink of water. The rest of them laid their weapons down, got on both knees and lapped at the water like a dog. Notice that God only needed 300 well-qualified warriors to defeat that entire Midianite army of thousands. How did he do that? Well, he deployed a brilliant knight maneuver And that night maneuver confused the enemy and gave Israel the total victory. So let’s notice the characteristics of the professional soldier and how these characteristics apply to believers like you and me. You listening? Here we go. One, God uses well-qualified Christians, not immature, unconcerned, distracted believers. God uses well-qualified Christians, not immature, unconcerned, distracted believers. So if you wish to be a member of the pivot of mature believers that can deliver this nation from the impending discipline we are facing, you must put your spiritual life as priority number one. In 1 Corinthians 15, 10, the Bible says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. A well-qualified Christian is not an immature, unconcerned, distracted believer. If you want to be a spiritual quiet professional, if you want to be a member of the pivot, if you want to deliver this nation from what’s coming and the impending discipline we’re facing, you must make your spiritual life priority number one. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15 10, I am what I am by the grace of God. Don’t forget what I just read. A well-qualified believer, a spiritual quiet professional, has an understanding of the mechanics involved in the spiritual life. He or even she understands the filling of the Holy Spirit. They understand the faith rest drill. They understand Operation Z. They understand virtue love. They have a personal sense of destiny. And they know exactly how to determine God’s will for their life. Did you hear all of that? Let me ask you this same question. Do you understand how to be filled with the Holy Spirit? You’re told to be filled with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5, 18. Do you understand it? Secondly, do you understand how to use the faith rest drill, standing on the promises of God? This problem solving device number three, do you understand how to do that? If not, you need to contact us. Let us send you the book on the faith rest drill. It’s critical you understand how to use those 7,000 promises found in the Bible, and they’re yours. They’re like cash in the bank, but if you can’t cash a check, it doesn’t do any good. You gotta know where those promises are. Do you know how to use a faithless drill? How many promises can you actually claim? So do you understand the filling of the Holy Spirit? Do you understand the faith restroom? Do you understand Operation Z? What does that mean? It means do you understand what it takes to learn the Word of God when you go to church? When you go to church, you sit there and listen to the preacher. The Holy Spirit will pick up what the preacher teaches you. The communicator will communicate it. The Holy Spirit will capture it. And you can comprehend it, but if you don’t comply with the message, it hasn’t done you any good at all. That’s why our Lord Jesus Christ said, happiness belongs to those people who hear my Father’s word and keep it. Hear and keep. In 1 John 5, 3, this is a sign you love God that you keep his mandates and his mandates are not hard. So Operation Z is you growing every day under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor. It’s you cycling that word that he teaches through your soul. It starts out being what the Greek just calls knowledge. The Greek word is gnosis, G-N-O-S-I-S. The English word is knowledge. But there’s another word that the English doesn’t have a word for, and the Greeks did. They called another word epinosis, E-P-I-G-N-O-S-I-S. And epi is a preposition meaning full, and there’s a difference between knowledge and full knowledge. The difference is knowledge is information you heard and understood, and full knowledge is information you heard, understood, and applied into your life. So unless you’re applying what you’re learning, you’re not fulfilling Operation Z. If you need more information about that, contact us and we’ll give you more information on that. Do you understand the virtue love category, personal love for God and personal love for others? Do you understand that? Do you understand that you love God with reciprocal love motivation because he first loved you, the Bible says. Virtue love says you have the ability to love a person that’s unloving. Do you have a personal sense of destiny? Do you know what God’s plan for your life is? Do you understand how to know it? Can you understand how to determine what is God’s will for your life? This is where I run into a lot of people that don’t know that. They know God has a plan for their life, but they don’t know how to determine what is God’s will for their life. Most of them don’t even know what their spiritual gift is. These are things you must know to be a well-qualified believer, to be that spiritual quiet professional. Because the spiritual quiet professional will know how to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will know how to use the faithless drill. He will know how to use operation Z. He understands the virtue love concepts of personal love for God and personal love for others. And he does have a personal sense of destiny. And he does know exactly how to determine God’s will for his life. So the spiritual quiet professional will not be hasty. He will not be impulsive. He will have divine wisdom and divine insight and discernment in the spiritual matters. Isaiah 30 verse 15 says, and quietness and confidence shall be your strength. There’s two words together right there, quietness and confidence. Spiritual, quiet, professional. The spiritual quiet professional is quiet and he’s confident, he’s a professional. The spiritual quiet professional is objective and impartial. And he’s not influenced by emotions or prejudice. He doesn’t have any personal prejudice. He’s not hung up on race or priorities or things like that. The spiritual quiet professional is not a loose cannon. Doesn’t run around and run in his mouth. He’s not a rogue warrior trying to do it all his way. Remember, God was in business before you got here and God will be in business when you’re gone. The whole thing doesn’t depend on you. What you have to do is get some spiritual maturity, glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, replicate his life through your life, begin to think in terms of divine viewpoint, not human viewpoint, and give maximum glorification to God. You cannot do that as a baby believer. You’ve got to grow up. You’ve got to become the man God designed you to be or the woman God designed you to be. And the only way you can do that is to have a true scale of values and a true scale of your priorities in your life. So that’s my question to you this morning. What are your priorities? Is your spiritual life your priorities? And what are your values? Are your values banked and based on the word of God? I’m telling you these things because without that core group of spiritual quiet professionals, that meet these standards I’m talking about, we will never, ever have a pivot that can deliver this nation from the forthcoming divine discipline that we’re facing, the divine discipline that we deserve because as a whole, we’ve turned our back on God. You know that and I know that. We’ve begun to worship the gifts more than the giver. We’ve kicked God out of the classroom. We’ve kicked God out of the public agenda. We’ve become a nation of arrogant, individual fools. Those in leadership, it amazes me the way they think sometimes. Some of the things they’re coming up with. We’re in serious trouble. It doesn’t take a genius to see it. I’ve been saying this for years. There’s a train wreck coming, and I can hear the whistleblowing right now. Anybody with any intelligence will tell you not much longer and we’re going to go down if we don’t start changing. And it has to start with you. That’s why I’m asking you this morning, if you’re not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I wish you would become one. I hope you would take a minute to accept Christ as your Savior because that is The single most significant important event in your life. What thank you of Christ? Is he the son of God or is he not? The day that I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior, my entire life changed. I didn’t feel different, but it became different. I remember going to bed that night with peace in my heart, knowing that God had forgiven me for my sin, and if I did die, I would go to heaven. That’s the first question you have to answer. If you die, are you gonna go to heaven? Do you know that for a fact? If you don’t, I pray that you will put your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, because the Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And secondly, if you are a Christian, My prayer is that you will see the priority to grow in the grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That you will get with it seriously. That you’ll get under the ministry of a well-qualified pastor. And if you don’t know where one is, contact me and I’ll tell you where one is. I’ll put you in touch with a good pastor where you can study at home if you have to. But you must grow, you must become that man or that woman God intended for you to be. You must be the spiritual quiet professional. You must live the spiritual life, you must operate in quietness, and you must be a professional in all your actions and all your deeds. I hope this is making sense to you. I wanted to do this on spiritual quiet professional to challenge you to be the man or to be the woman God designed you to be. Because unless we have a few spiritual quiet professionals, You can kiss it goodbye in this country. And you can tell your children, your grandchildren, well, I was saved and I was a Christian, but I didn’t care enough about it to give you a chance. Because that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re guaranteeing they don’t have a chance if you don’t fulfill your spiritual life. Because as goes your spiritual life, so goes the history of this nation. Are you listening? I pray you are. Are you being challenged? I pray you are. And I pray you’ll come back next week, same time, same place, same station, and join me again. If you need to contact me, you can always call 1-800-831-0718. 1-800-831-0718. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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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.
