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548-Whose-Mind-Is-It-transcript.pdf
Whose Mind Is It
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 548 aired on February 21, 2016
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
moments I would like to invite you to stick around. It’s going to be a little bit of time where we
have some motivation, some inspiration, some education, and it’ll be done without any
manipulation. We won’t ask you for money. We are not trying to sell you anything. We are not
going to ask you to join up, fess up, give up, nothing like this. Our show is simply about giving
you accurate information that can help you verify and possibly identify the plan of God for your
life, if in fact you’re interested. You always have the freedom to orient and adjust to the plan,
that’s up to you, but I can assure you my job is to give you the information and to give it to you
accurately. I’m not here to mislead you. I’m not here to recruit you. I’m just here to give you
information. I hope you’re listening and learning and I certainly hope you will apply. The Lord
Jesus Christ made this statement to a woman in Luke 11:28,
“Happiness belongs to those people
who hear My Father’s Word and who keep it.”
The big test is can we keep what we hear? One of
the ways we talk about this is can we convert the knowledge that we learn to the full knowledge
that we apply? The Greeks had two words they used for this in the New Testament time. One was
called
gnosis,
knowledge, and the other is
epignosis, epi
being a preposition representing full.
One is knowledge and the other is full knowledge and the difference between the two is
information you’ve heard and understood and information you’ve heard, understood and
applied.
The
epignosis
is the applied information. The
gnosis
is the information you heard and
understood. Sometimes people tell you that
“Knowledge puffs you up”
(1 Corinthians 8:1).
That’s exactly right if that’s all you have. If all you have is information that you know that you
don’t apply, then you get arrogant about it. We want to talk about this mind today. Our show is
called The FLOT Line and this is a military acronym for the forward line of troops. We are using
a military metaphor here about how the main line of resistance in your soul, these 10 unique
problem-solving devices that we teach all the time, can keep the outside sources of adversity
form becoming the inside source of stress if you will learn them and deploy them. The adversity
is always there. The stress never has to be there because we are Christians. We live a
supernatural life. We don’t have to worry. We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to live in
guilt. These are things that we don’t have to do. We don’t have to be bitter. We don’t have to be
vindictive. The rest of the world doesn’t understand this.
There is a supernatural way to live
under the filling of God the Holy Spirit and being empowered by God’s Word.
This is a
balance of residency in your soul like a seesaw. You have the filling of the Holy Spirit on one
end and you have the Word of God on the other end and there’s a balance in your life. When you
live like this, then you can control what you think because Proverbs 23:7 says we are what we
think. It is clear about this,
“As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.”
The Bible is clear that if God
wants to check you out, He’s not going to look at your image and your style. He is not concerned
with what you’re wearing or how cool you are. In other words He is not concerned if you are hip.
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He’s concerned if you are conforming to His image, if you are conforming to His will for your
life.
If in fact you are a Christian having accepted Christ as your Savior then your spiritual
IQ is much more important than your human IQ.
I don’t even know my human IQ, I don’t
even care what it is, but spiritual IQ is a different story. Spiritual IQ is the content of the Word of
God in your soul and this comes from having equal privilege and equal opportunity. The justice
of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Savior guarantees to each one of us equal
privilege and equal opportunity. We have the privilege to receive Christ as our Savior and we
have the opportunity to take the Bible, the canon of Scripture, the Word of God, and learn it, use
it, and apply it into our life. We all have the same privilege and the same opportunity.
I don’t care
what side of the tracks you come from, you cannot ever blame your failure or your misfortune on
your environment. We are all a product of our decisions not our environment. Yet so many times
arrogant people want to say, “The reason that I’m such a bad person is I grew up in a bad
environment.” Listen, this is not true. I grew up in a bad environment. I grew up in an
environment where I never met my father. I don’t know who he is to this day. I grew up in a
federal housing project where my mother was a single parent and she worked and I was left to
roam the streets in a housing project. That was a bad environment. Thanks to the grace of God
through finding Christ as my Savior, my life and the direction of my life turned around and it can
do the same for you too. It’s an amazing thing. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says,
“If any man is in Christ,
he is a new creation. Old things are passed away and all things become new.”
It’s wonderful that
at the age of 22 years old I had a chance to start my life all over again in Christ and you can too.
You can have a new life in Christ. Anything that’s behind you, the slate can be wiped clean. Your
sins were all paid for, all of our sins were judged on Him on the cross and this forgiveness was
extended to us by means of what John 3:16 says,
“He that believes in him shall not perish but
have everlasting life.”
John 3:18 continues,
“But he that believes not, the wrath of God abides
on him already.”
We all have the privilege to accept Christ as our Savior. We all have the
opportunity to take God’s Word and learn it under the filling of the Holy Spirit. You can take the
Word of God, the Bible, what we call Bible doctrine and put it into your soul, into the mentality
of your soul where it becomes part of your memory center, part of your frame of reference, part
of your vocabulary storage. This is how you begin to re-present Christ in your life. This is what
you do, you assume the mind of Christ. The New Testament is the mind of Christ. When you
begin to think like He thought, you’re beginning to assume the mind of Christ. Listen to what I’m
about to tell you, as goes your thought life, so goes your spiritual life. How do I know this?
Because in Revelation 2:23 God said this,
“I am He who searches the mind and the heart.”
If
God wants to check you out, He is looking at your thoughts. The word
“mind”
is the Greek word
nous
and the word
“heart”
is the Greek word
kardia.
We get cardiac or cardiology from
kardia.
Do you remember the words
gnosis
and
epignosis
I gave you earlier? The mind is where the
gnosis
resides and the heart is where the
epignosis
goes. When we hear it, we hear it in our mind,
we understand it. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, to make what you hear spiritually
perceptible and then you use your volition, you have a choice.
If you choose to believe what
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you hear and apply it, then this information moves from your mind to your heart where it
becomes part of your soul.
When God wants to check you out, He will look at your mind and
your heart. He will see, this is what Revelation 2:23 says,
“I am He who searches the mind
[the
nous
] and the heart [the
kardia
]
and I will give to each one of you according to your production.”
This was a message to the church in Thyatira but this is going to happen to us as well. When we
stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ as believers in Christ, we will be evaluated based on
our production, some being wood, hay, and stubble as in 1 Corinthians 3:12 and some being
gold, silver and precious stones. The wood, hay, and the stubble is the production done under the
flesh. That is not rewardable. The gold, silver, and precious stones is the production done under
the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is rewardable. As a Christian you can produce good works or
you can produce divine good. The good works will be burned up. It’s called wood, hay, and
stubble. The divine good will be rewarded, it’s called gold, silver, and precious stones. This is
what the Lord is going to do. He’s going to evaluate us based on our production. He looks into
our minds and hearts to see our motivation, what our desires are, what our motives are, what our
decisions are.
In Isaiah 26:3 the prophet Isaiah wrote,
“Thou will keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusts in Thee.”
When you are occupied with
Christ, that’s problem-solving device #10, your mind is stayed on Him.
You are occupied
with Christ. This is where perfect peace comes from. When you are occupied with Christ you are
at peace. You have rest with God. It’s a wonderful way to live. It’s called the faith-rest drill,
problem-solving device #3. We’ve got them all listed in a book. If you don’t have the book you
need to write and ask for
Christian Problem Solving
. We’ll send it to you right away, no charge
ever. Here’s the way to live. Here’s a way to have peace and it comes from trusting in His Word
and assimilating the mind of Christ. This gives you peace in your life. What is the source of your
thoughts? Let’s take a look at a little MRI, a spiritual MRI here today. Where do your thoughts
come from? Is the Word of God circulating in your stream of consciousness so that when you’re
thinking, you’re thinking divine viewpoint or is there no Word of God circulating in your stream
of consciousness so when you’re thinking, you’re thinking human viewpoint? Which one is it?
Lamentations 3:21, listen to the writer,
“This I recall to mind.”
There is recall, this is
remembrance, this is pulling it up out of the frame of reference, pulling it up out of the memory
center. Here the writer is saying, “I’ve learned this, I remember this and now I’ve applied this.”
“This I recall to my mind and therefore I have confidence. It is because of the Lord’s mercies that
we are not consumed because His compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is His
faithfulness.”
What an amazing thing to say.
Every day in your life when you get up, why
wouldn’t you think this?
“This I recall the mind, therefore I have hope. It is because of our
Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not, they are new every
morning, great is His faithfulness.”
This is why you are here today.
This is why you’re living
today. This is why you are prosperous today, because God has blessed you. He has compassion
on you. He has been faithful to supply your needs.
Your mind is where the spiritual life is
lived.
On the outside, we act holy, we walk holy, we talk holy, we go to church, we dress up. We
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say, “Hello brother, hello sister, praise God brother, praise God sister.” That’s not the real you.
That’s a little show you put on for people. The real you is what you’re thinking in your mind. 2
Corinthians 11:3 tells us that our mind does not need to be corrupted from the simplicity that is
in Christ Jesus. The devil is very good at tricking us. He is very crafty. He can give you some eye
candy. He certainly tricked Eve with eye candy and he can do this with us.
What does Satan
really want to do with you? He wants to recapture your thoughts. He wants you to get your
mind off of God, off of Jesus Christ, and to think about things that are temporary.
He
would rather you think about politics than about doctrine. He would rather you think about
entertainment than about the Word of God. There’s nothing wrong with politics. There’s nothing
wrong with entertainment as long as you understand that this is not the source of happiness. I
don’t care what politician we elect in the coming election, this is not the answer to what’s going
on in America. The Word of God is very clear about this. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says,
“If My people
that are called by My name will humble themselves and seek My face and turn from their sin,
then I will hear their prayers.”
We are the answer. The reason that a nation like America could
go down in history as the biggest sucker nation that ever came along, who would go from great
blessing to great historical disaster, is Hosea 4:6.
“My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge. Since you rejected knowledge, I will reject you.”
We no longer want the knowledge
of God in this country. We are through with God in this country supposedly, not me, not you, but
a lot of other people are.
We focus on the gifts and we forget the Giver. We don’t want the
knowledge of God’s Word anymore.
This is why America is facing a crossroads in history and
this is why every person you listen to is warning you. They are telling you, “Look out, there’s a
disaster coming. Look out, there’s a train wreck coming, you can hear the whistle blowing right
now.” If we continue on this course of godlessness, we might not even be a free nation in a few
years. I’m not a politician, I’m not here trying to predict the future. I’m just looking at the trends
of history. That’s all you have to do. As you look at the trends of history you can evaluate
yourself what’s going on in this country. The Bible is clear that Satan wants to recapture our
thoughts, get our mind off of Christ, trick us with a little eye candy, and then we start looking at
ourselves. “Woe is me.”
It’s much easier to have a little pity party then to use the faith-rest
drill. It’s much easier to feel sorry for yourself than to trust in the Lord.
It’s amazing how
Satan seems to neutralize our spiritual life but sometimes we can even do it for him. That’s what
he wants to do.
He wants to neutralize you. He wants to put you in a place where you have
no impact for Jesus Christ in your generation. He wants to get you distracted and
discouraged.
Whatever he can do he will do it so that you will not have an impact for Jesus
Christ. You won’t evangelize your children. You won’t evangelize your neighbors. You won’t
take a stand for God’s Word and live by the principles and the procedures taught in the Bible. In
other words, he will effectively neutralize you and you can go on and chase all the details in life
and you can seek your happiness down the My Way Highway. In the end you will find out that
you lived your life for nothing that really mattered at all to start with. How pitiful is that? You
will spend money you don’t have to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t even
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like. Isn’t that pitiful? If you want to get back in the ballgame, let me tell you a simple way to do
it.
As a believer in Jesus Christ you need to reclaim your affections.
What do I mean by this?
1 John 2:15 tells us,
“Love not the world. Neither love the things that are in the world because if
any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
The first priority for you and
me is to love God.
1 John 4:19 says,
“We love God because He first loved us.”
1 John 5:3 says,
“This is the love of God, that we keep His mandates and His mandates are not hard.”
Love for
God is motivational virtue. If you have personal love for God, this will motivate you to have
impersonal love for others.
This is God’s plan, problem-solving devices #7 and #8, personal
love for God and impersonal love for others. If you can reclaim your affections, the first thing
you have to do is quit loving the world. Your happiness does not depend on people nor does it
depend on circumstances. It depends strictly on the provisions that God has provided for you.
Secondly, if you want to recapture your thoughts
Romans 12:3 says,
“Stop thinking of yourself
in terms of arrogance but think in terms of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a
standard of thinking from His Word.”
This is the battle you have in your soul, whether you’re
going to be arrogant or whether you’re going to have humility. Remember that arrogance is
identified with three patterns in your thinking, self-justification, self-deception, and self-
absorption. If you get into this pattern, you are going to move into self-destruction. Some of you
have already destroyed your lives. You may be incarcerated never to be set free again because
you arrogantly justified why it was okay to take something that wasn’t yours or you arrogantly
justified why it was okay to hurt another person. Some of you lie to yourself and if you lie to
yourself, you have an unrealistic self-image. You will think of yourself in a way that is not right.
If you have an unrealistic self-image then you want others to treat you the way you’re not worthy
of being treated. That’s called unrealistic expectations. Self-deception is pitiful. Look in the
mirror, look at yourself really good. Then there is self absorption. This is where we get totally
absorbed in doing what we want to do regardless of what it cost others or ourself because we
think that’s the thing that will make us happy.
Arrogance is the number one enemy of any
Christian.
Arrogance is rarely talked about, very seldom ever preached about, but arrogance is
your enemy. It’s in your own mind. It’s in your own thoughts and it is exactly what Satan will
foster in you if he can. It’s what he did with Eve. He said, “God just doesn’t want you to be as
smart as He is. That’s why He told you don’t eat that.” That’s an arrogance thing on her part.
“Why would God hide something from me,” she thought? Listen, if you get arrogant, you justify
why you make bad decisions and you deceive yourself into thinking you’re right and everyone
else is wrong, you’re going to destroy yourself. This is sometimes the attitude of the criminal. He
justifies why it’s right to steal and he deceives himself into saying, “Well the police are wrong,
and these people are wrong and they got too much and I don’t have and thus I can get it.” No, this
is not correct. That’s self-absorption and that leads to self-destruction. Recapture your thoughts.
2 Corinthians 10:5 says,
“Casting down every imagination, every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought in obedience to Christ.”
This is it, you are what you think and every thought must be captured because you have a sin
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nature. This sin nature is always going to pop its little head up just like the Jack-in-the-Box. He
will pop his head up and he will try to influence your thoughts. He will try to capture your
thinking. You must not let this happen. You must bring your mind into obedience with Christ and
there’s no way to do it other than you decide yourself, your volition, you must choose. Do you
want to obey God or do you not? Do you want to play games? Do you want to walk the fence?
Do you want to be a 50-50 sort of guy? You make this decision and there’s no miracle cure for
this. You can’t go throw a stick on a fire and promise God you are going to behave the rest of
your life. You can’t go to some retreat or some camp, get emotional and say,”I have had a great
close encounter with God, now I’m a changed person.” No you’re not, you’re still the same
person. You still have the same sin nature. You still have the same lust patterns. You still have the
same temptations. Until you decide in your soul, “No, I won’t do that,” you will always do it.
You are product of your volition. God gave you a choice. You can make a decision to say no
to the temptations and glorify Christ.
Isn’t this what Jesus did in Matthew 4:1-11 when Satan
tempted Him three times? The Lord said, “No, no, no.” This is what you have to do.
You have to
recapture your thoughts, then redirect your focus and redefine your values.
2 Corinthians
4:18,
“While we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are seen not, for the
things that are seen are temporary but the things that are seen not, they are eternal.”
Then you
must redefine your values. Matthew 6:19-20,
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth
where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break in
and steal.”
Then you need to reorder your priorities.
Matthew 6:33,
“You seek first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things
[all of your logistical grace
provisions]
will be added to you,”
complements of the grace of God. What I’m telling you is
divine viewpoint.
You need to think divine viewpoint.
Divine viewpoint is the mind of Christ.
Therefore 1 Corinthians 2:16,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord and who will instruct Him,
but we have the mind of Christ.”
The entire New Testament is the mind of Christ and as we learn
God’s Word and make the application into our life, we conformed to His image. We do exactly
what Paul said we should do in Philippians 2:5,
“Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ
Jesus.”
It is a new perspective of life based on the infallibility of God’s Word. Isn’t it amazing?
God can read your mind like an open book. Hebrews 4:13,
“There is not a creature hidden from
before Him but all things are bare and have been exposed to the eyes of Him to whom an account
must be given.”
He knows what you’re thinking. He sees your motives, your thoughts, your
intentions, and your desires. Isn’t it time you reclaimed your affections and got back where you
need to be?
I know God loves you. I know He has not abandoned you and I know it’s time
for you to get serious about your mind.
I hope you are listening. I hope you’re paying attention.
Your very life depends on it. Until next week this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for
listening to The FLOT Line.