In this thought-provoking episode of The Flatline, Rick Hughes invites listeners on a journey through the concept of volitional responsibility in the Christian faith. Through exploration of scripture and biblical teachings, uncover insights into the transformational potential of humility, the significance of belief, and the detrimental effects of arrogance. Rick illustrates clearly how maintaining control over one’s decisions can lead to spiritual growth and a fulfilling life aligned with divine intention. This episode offers listeners practical tools to break free from the chains of stress and embrace a God-centered life through disciplined obedience and reverence for eternal truth.
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 Flotline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes. For the next few minutes, I’d like to ask you to please stick around. It’ll just be 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of education, and we don’t use any manipulation. If this is your first time to hear us, the Flotline stands for the Forward Line of Troops. That’s a military analogy. We’re talking about how you can learn 10 unique problem-solving devices taught in the Bible, the Word of God, and there’s nothing new. These are age-old biblical doctrines, but if you learn them and use them, then you can stop the outside sources of adversity from becoming the inside source of stress. That’s why we say adversity is inevitable and stress is optional. You can have an inside flatline, a main line of resistance in your soul based on the word of God to allow you to live the life that Jesus Christ designed for you, the Christian life, the most unique life in the world. A life with no worry, a life with no fear, a life with complete confidence, a life that has the most happiness that you’ve ever known. You say, that doesn’t sound like any Christian life I’ve ever heard of. Well, that’s what it’s supposed to be. That’s what the Word of God says. And it all boils down to you using your volition. We’ve been talking about volition the last two shows. Volition, V-O-L-I-T-I-O-N. It’s part of the main frame of your soul. God gave you a soul. You have mentality and you have volition. You have the ability to choose. You have the ability to make a decision. But that decision can be based on one or two things. It can be based on what you think or it can be based on what you feel. That’s why we jokingly say that God has given you two ends, one to sit with and one to think with. And success in life depends on which one of those you use. Heads you win, tails you lose. God wants you to think. And that’s why the Bible says, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. And the first thing you have to think is in terms of humility. The Bible says who humbled himself, he humbled himself. Humility is the total opposite of arrogance. Arrogance skills include self-justification, self-deception, self-absorption, and eventually, obviously, self-destruction. And arrogant people always destroy their life and other lives of those associated with them. And so if you use your volition in an arrogant way, With an unrealistic self-image, with unrealistic expectations, you’re just going to destroy yourself. But if you have some humility and use your volition to learn God’s Word, to acquire wisdom, knowledge, insight, and understanding, the fantastic four taught in the book of Proverbs, then you can have a most wonderful life. But we showed you how there’s self-induced misery and divine discipline from using your volition in the wrong way. Again, your volition is what controls you. You make your life out of your decisions. You must choose. Your thoughts become your decisions, and your decisions become your actions, and your actions lead to results. So what does the Bible say about self-induced misery? Making your own self miserable. Proverbs 22.8, he who sows wickedness reaps trouble and the rod of his punishment will surely come. Sowing wickedness is you intentionally committing sin. When you intentionally sin, it could be mental attitude sin such as uh worry fear jealousy bitterness it could be sins of the tongue such as lying and slander and gossiping it could be an overt sin like stealing or adultery or fornication when we sow wickedness we reap trouble and that trouble if you are a christian comes from the disciplined hand of God. If you’re not a Christian and you never accepted Christ as your savior, you’re still so troubled from the establishment concepts of the law, divine establishment concepts that we operate on as a nation. Demand that we all orient to authority to maintain our freedom. And if you cannot orient to authority, if you’re negative to authority, and you decide to go on a criminal spree, you will suffer trouble. So that’s one verse, Proverbs 22, 8. He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his punishment will surely come. There’s a verse in the book of John chapter three says, he that believes in him shall never perish, but have everlasting life. And he that believes not, the wrath of God abides on him already. Without believing in Jesus Christ and accepting him as your savior, you are using your volition to go negative to God’s plan. You’re using your volition to say, no, I do not want to accept Christ as my savior. Maybe you think you got a better deal. Or maybe you think that God is wrong or the Bible is wrong or it’s all a joke. It’s not, I assure you. We don’t have time to go in and prove why the Bible is true and why the Lord Jesus Christ is who he said he is. But if you read Romans, the first chapter, beginning with verse 19, you can see the logical conclusion that there must be a God that created this because there’s too much order. There’s no chaos in the universe. And so everything fits together, even in your own body it works. So there is a God, and you must answer to that God. And that God said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. I hope you’ll consider that seriously. I hope you will look at those claims that Christ made himself, the claims that he was the Son of God, that he did die for your sins. It certainly shocked Pilate when Pilate saw it. Pilate, Jesus was led before Pilate to be crucified by the Jewish religious leaders. And they said, he’s made himself out to be the son of God. And Pilate heard that and about freaked out. Took him to the side, back into the praetorium and said, where did you come from? well he wanted to know i hope you want to know is jesus the son of god is he is he who he said he was or was he just as it’s been said before a lunatic and a liar i think if you will examine the scripture you will see that he was not a lunatic he was not a liar he was indeed the son of god That’s why the Bible says this is the will of him that sent me that you believe in me whom he has sent. And that is the first volitional decision you must make that will help you orient and adjust to the plan of God. And we go to Proverbs 12, 13. In the transgression of the lips, that’s the sin of your big mouth, mine too, is an evil snare. That’s triple compound discipline we get when we stick our nose in someone else’s business. Matthew 7 says, don’t judge, let you be judged because of what measure you measure, it’ll be measured back to you again. And you can actually stick your nose where it doesn’t belong. And that person’s discipline, if in fact it’s true, what you said would be taken off of them and given to you. So your righteous will escape. And let me go back. Proverbs 12, 13, in the transgression of the lips is an evil snare, but the righteous person will escape this trouble. So every time you judge or malign or gossip or run down someone, you have manufactured misery for yourself. The righteous here isn’t someone who’s perfect. I don’t know anyone who’s perfect. We’re all just a bunch of jerks. And if it wasn’t for God’s sense of humor, come on, you know this. You and I would have already been a greasy spot. God has a sense of humor. You don’t believe it? Go look in the mirror. He created us, didn’t he? And he’s very gracious and very patient with us. So what this righteous person here is not a perfect person. It’s someone who doesn’t gossip, malign, or judge other people. and uh can’t afford to do that i have been at dinner conversations where the neighbor was the the center of the conversation and it makes you terribly uncomfortable and you want to say shut up quit judging other people leave them alone proverbs 13 20 he who walks with wise men will be wise but the companion of a fool will suffer misery if you use a volitional decision to hang out with an idiot If you use your volition to hang out with a real, dumb, criminal, arrogant idiot, then you’re going to suffer misery. We make good decisions and we make bad decisions in regards to the people whom we associate with. If you associate with the wrong crowd, you’re making a decision that’s going to cause you a tremendous amount of unhappiness. You may remember from high school, associating with the wrong crowd, I can remember distinctly the upperclassmen luring me into certain things and wanting to get their approval, wanting to be liked by them. I went right along with just like a dumb sheep, just so they would like me and did things that I should not have done. And you probably were down the same road. Proverbs 15, 17, another volitional verse. Better is a dish of cabbage where love is than the best wine and hatred with it. In other words, you not only choose your food, but you choose your associations as well. If you choose to have a steak or a hamburger or pasta today, you also choose who you’re hanging out with. So if you’re gonna fall in love, you better fall in love with the right sort of person. Proverbs 15, 33, occupation with the Lord is the instruction for wisdom. And before honor must come humility. Good decisions. Occupation with the Lord. Problem solving device number 10 in our Flatline on the Soul. Occupation with the Lord is the instruction for wisdom. And before any honor comes into our life, we must be able to handle it with humility. Good decisions based on humility in your soul will eventually lead to honor, and that includes virtue love as a problem-solving device. Another problem-solving device, number eight, virtue love, impersonal love, the ability to love other people. Proverbs 16, 18, pride, that’s arrogance, goes before destruction and an arrogant way of life before a fall. Destruction and fall here both refer to self-imposed, self-induced misery under the law of volitional responsibility. Your arrogance and your arrogant way of life will cause you to destroy yourself. That’s why I told you earlier in this show, self-deception, self-absorption, self-destruction. Self-justification is the first step of arrogance. You justify why you’re right and everybody else is wrong. Then you become totally absorbed with what you want to do. That’s self-absorption. And then there’s also self-destruction that comes along following that. Self-justification, self-deception, self-absorption, self-destruction. So remember that pride, that’s arrogance, goes before that destruction and an arrogant way of life before a fall. If you’re listening to me and you’re thinking these may be you that I might be talking about you, could I suggest you take a moment and go before your father? And as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, simply tell him you’ve sinned. Simply admit to him that you’ve been arrogant and you’ve rejected his word and you’ve gone down that my way highway. Be honest with God because the Bible says that he loves you. He cares about you. God doesn’t want to hurt you, but he will discipline his children when we step out of line according to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 12 tells us, chapter 12, verse 6, those whom he loves, he disciplines and he scourges with a whip. And that’s not fun. So if you are a child of God, now would be a great time to be honest, to own up to it, and to simply ask the Lord to forgive you, to cleanse you from your sin. That’s where it starts because that puts the Holy Spirit back in control. You cannot grow if the Holy Spirit’s not in control. You cannot glorify God if the Holy Spirit’s not in control. You cannot live the Christian life if the Holy Spirit’s not in control. That’s why rebound is the first problem-solving device in the flotline of your soul. rebound retains the filling of the Holy Spirit. It’s the only way to get the Holy Spirit to be in control again because the Bible tells us the flesh wars against the spirit, the spirit wars against the flesh, they’re contrary one to another. There’s a war going on inside of you and it’s your flesh that wants to control you that manipulates you until your volition agrees to go along with its demands. When the flesh demands something that you don’t want to do, your volition may fight it. And your volition may say, no, I’m not going to do that. No, no, no. But the flesh doesn’t give up. And the world doesn’t give up. not even talking about the devil. Remember, he’s not omnipresent. He can only be in one place at one time. And if you think he’s at your house chasing you around between the living room and the bedroom, you’re wrong. You’re not getting away from your own flesh and the lure of the world. That’s where the problem is. Now’s the time to confess your sin to God. Another verse, better a dry crust with tranquility, that’s peace and quiet, than a house full of religion and strife. Proverbs 17, one. Better a dry crust with tranquility, that’s peace and quiet, than a house of religion that’s all kind of sacrifices and strife. So religion usually is ritual without reality and it’s meaningless. Organized religion is the number one evil thing in the world. It is the most evil thing in the world. Luke 18 talks about the religious man who thought he was saved and he wasn’t. Oh, he tithed and he prayed and he did this and he did that, but he wasn’t a believer because he was basing it on his own self-righteousness. If your volition is basing your salvation on your self-righteousness, then you are not a Christian either. So, Proverbs 17, 13. He who returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house. It will not only affect him, but also everyone associated with him. And this is called compounding self-induced misery. Not only will you make your life miserable, but you will make everyone in your home miserable as well. And this is so true of drug addicts and how they destroy families and homes and alcoholics and et cetera. Proverbs 17, 20, a person with a perverse right lobe, that’s a mindset, That’s a person who deviates from what’s right. He’s obstinate. He’s willfully wrong. A person with a perverse right lobe mindset will not prosper, and he whose tongue is deceitful will fall into trouble and misery. Proverbs 19, eight. He who gets wisdom loves his own soul. That’s spiritual self-esteem. That’s a wonderful thing. And he who cherishes understanding will prosper. Did you see gets and cherishes? Those are volitional decisions. You must decide for yourself, do you want to grow up spiritually? You must decide for yourself, do you want to glorify God? You must decide for yourself, am I willing to put in the time that it takes to become a mature believer? If you join the military service, you have to go to boot camp. And in boot camp, you learn how to march, how to dress, how to use your weapon, how to respond to officers. You are basically reintroduced to a new way of thinking and a new way of living under authority. This is much the same as becoming a Christian. You have to change the way you think. You change the way you live. And this is what becoming a Christian is all about. If any man is in Christ, the Bible says, he’s a brand new creation. Old things are passed away and all things become new. You don’t look different. You don’t sound different. But internally, you become different. Because God the Holy Spirit moves in to set up residency in your dead human spirit, you are now made alive spiritually and And you enter into the angelic conflict where the war begins. The flesh wars against the spirit. The spirit wars against the flesh. And you must decide for yourself, as I’ve seen many people decide not to do, you must decide, do I want to advance spiritually? Do I want to grow spiritually? Or do I want to pursue other details in my life? Some of my personal decisions I’m trying to think of the word I want to use here, but some of the things that have made me the saddest are those that I’ve seen come to Christ who had the potential to serve him but walked away to chase the details of life, to chase fame, publicity, happiness, and some other area. And it’s the way life goes. They’re not interested. Other things attract them. What attracts you? What do you want to do with your life? What is your life about? That’s a decision your volition will make. Your volition will decide where you want to go and what you want to do. Proverbs 19, 15, laziness brings on deep sleep and the shiftless person suffers hunger. Laziness is a volitional decision. If you want to lay in the bed 12 hours a day and you live to be 80, you’re only awake for 40 years, so you live to be 40, really. Sleep is fine. It’s wonderful. Nothing wrong with it. But you’re not designed to sleep your life away. And yet a lazy person will sleep their life away. They won’t work. They won’t get out of bed. They won’t take care of their schoolwork. They won’t get dressed in time to go to school. They won’t handle their responsibility. They just want to sleep. And a shiftless person, that’s a person that’s not willing to work, suffers hunger. However, in our country, some people are not willing to work but depend on the government to provide food for them. That’s not a good thing necessarily. It is right and thing to be charitable. It is right to help people in need. But it is not right to provide for those who are not willing to work and are able and could work. They take advantage of the system. Proverbs 19, 16, he who obeys instruction guards his own soul, but he who is contemptuous of his own ways will die. This is a certain ticket to an early death. If you obey the word of God, it’s beginning with Ephesians 6, 1, 2, 3, children obey your parents, honor your father and your mother, which is the first mandate with a promise that you will live long on this earth. If you can obey those instructions to develop authority orientation for your parents, then you can protect your soul. But if you’re contemptuous of your own ways, you reject the authority of your parents, you reject the authority of the priest officer, You reject the authority of the Bible. You reject the authority of the pastor. You’re going to set yourself up for an early death. How? Because in your arrogance, you will self-justify, self-deceive, self-absorb, and self-destruct. You will destroy your own life. As a matter of fact, you may be well on the way to destroying your own life right now. Again, it’s not too late. You can stop. You can go to your Heavenly Father if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ and admit your sin. He already knows about it. He’s lovingly waiting on you. You haven’t died yet. Why not recover? Why not get with it? Why not use the same volition that got you into trouble to get you out of trouble? Just like you decided to do what you did, you can decide to go to the Father and admit your sin to God. Proverbs 19, 19, a hot-tempered man must pay the penalty. If you rescue him, you will have to do it again. That’s a person who can’t control his temper. That’s a volitional decision. That’s the arrogant person that can’t control his temper. We’ve all been there. We’ve all, when we’re young, we have a temper. However, in America today, It’s unbelievable. People are so out of control, they’ll shoot you in traffic just because you accidentally pulled in front of them. They’ll run you over in the grocery store because you accidentally did something. People’s temper is out of control. They’ll run you down in the parking lot they will do unbelievable mean nasty evil things because they get mad and lose their temper and never think about the consequences a hot tempered person is the person you must look out for Because if you rescue him, you’re going to have to do it again and again and again and again. If he’s your child, if he’s your friend, it’s going to be a life of misery trying to get this person out of trouble because they can’t control their temper. Proverbs 19.23, occupation with the Lord leads to living so that one rests in contentment is untouched by trouble. You rest in contentment and you are untouched in trouble. To be content means to have capacity for life. To be content means you’re not looking for something to make you happy. You already have inner happiness. In Proverbs 19.25, flog a mocker and the simple will learn prudence. but rebuke a discerning person and he will gain knowledge. That’s the criminal, the mocker. You flog him and the sepul learn, I don’t need to do that or I’m gonna get flogged. But if you rebuke a person that has some discernment, then he’ll gain knowledge. And so a person with humility has discernment and gains knowledge. from the rebuking that we are getting today from the Word of God. Are you that person? Do you have that sort of temperament? Do you? Are you discerning enough to know that these verses are speaking to you? This is God talking to you, not Rick Hughes, the host. It’s God’s Word speaking to you, and it’s the Holy Spirit making them come alive in your soul. So the Bible is clear. Better to live in the corner of a rooftop than to share a house with a contemptuous wife. Boy, Proverbs 21 verse 9. If your life is miserable, you just soon go live outside on top of the roof and get yelled at, shouted at, cussed out by a wife that’s mad. Proverbs 21, 19, better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and nagging woman. In other words, making a wrong decision and choosing your marriage partner will cause you a life full of misery. Proverbs 21, 21, he who pursues virtue love finds the capacity for life, prosperity, and honor. That’s what God has for you. But Proverbs 22.8, he who sows wickedness reaps trouble. That’s the law of volitional responsibility. And the rod of his punishment will surely come. His is God. The rod of God’s punishment will surely come. There are laws relating to your volition. There are laws relating to what happens when you use your volition to go negative to God. When you in your arrogance reject the authority of your parents, reject the authority of the police officer, reject the authority of the pastor, reject any authority in life, you’re setting yourself up for an early death. You will destroy yourself because you do not have enough humility to make the right decision. Consider what I say. Think about these things. You are a product of your volition, not your circumstances. You’re a product of your decisions, not where you grew up, not who was your mama or daddy, who you are, your life, your volition, your decisions. You are responsible. I hope you’re thinking. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention because this is a critical time in your life. I can guarantee you that. Until next Sunday, when I’ll be back, same time, same place, same station, we’re very grateful for the opportunity to be here, and we always like to hear from you. Contact us through our website, rickhughesministries.org. Until then, thank you for listening to The Floodline.
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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.
