May 12, 2026 • 27 mins
Spiritual revival and renewal require individual sustained spiritual growth. In this episode, Rick Hughes teaches that national revival starts with individual believers learning, applying, and living God’s Word daily. Using Jonah’s story and biblical examples, Rick explains that true revival isn’t political—it’s spiritual renewal rooted in prayer, humility, and accurate understanding of God’s plan.
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(00:08):
Welcome to the Flatline with your host Rick Hughes.
For the next 30 minutes you'll be inspired, motivated, educated
but never manipulated. Now your host, Rick Hughes.
Good morning and welcome to the Floodline.
I'm your host, Rick Hughes. And for the next few minutes,
(00:30):
please stick around. It won't be long.
Only 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of
education, and absolutely no manipulation.
Because we're not going to con you.
We're not going to ask you for money.
We're not going to try to solicit funds, sell you
anything. We just want to give you
something. We want to give you the
information found in the Bible to try to verify and identify
(00:51):
God's plan for your life. If we can do that, then you can
Orient, adjust the plan should you decide to do so.
But I thank you for listening tothe Flightline Radio show. 21
years we've been broadcasting this radio show and it's been a
wonderful, wonderful blessing inmy life to be able to bring you
this information and remind you that our 800 number is not
(01:12):
working right now. We changed telephone service and
they got something mixed up and we're not able to get 800 calls.
We're trying our best to get that back on the air, but you
can always contact us through the website
thatsrickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org and you
there. You can order our books.
(01:33):
We have another new book coming out called Understanding Your
Soul. Hopefully it'll be out by
Thanksgiving and I think you maywant to get that book.
It's going to be one of our bestwe've done yet.
OK. In my last radio broadcast, I
made a statement to you that I hoped would resonate.
I said this, there will never bea revival in America if
believers do not learn how to pray.
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Again, there will never be a revival in America that
believers don't learn how to pray.
I don't know if you want a revival.
I'd like to see a revival, but let we need to identify what a
revival is. The first revival that I
actually preached I conducted was in a small Baptist Church in
Leeds, AL, about 19, maybe 1970.That's a long time ago.
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Every night I spoke, giving an open invitation for people to
come forward and receive Christ.I also was invited to host a
revival in Gulfport, Ms. But thelocal pastor wanted to collect a
love offering for me, and I refused to do that.
So that didn't go for very well because I don't understand how
you could invite people to come hear somebody preach the gospel
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and then try to ask them for money.
So we didn't do that one. But the first nationwide revival
is taught in the book of Jonah in the Old Testament.
It occurred in the town of Nineveh.
You might remember that God directly told Jonah go to
Nineveh and Jonah chapter one, verse 2, go to Nineveh and cry
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against it, for their wickednesshas come up before me.
However, dear Jonah refused to do that.
He said, Nope, I'm not going to do that.
I don't like those people. And instead he boarded a boat
bound for Tarsus, fleeing from the Lord's erection.
It appeared that he preferred todie rather than preach to the
people in Nineveh. And that's actually when the
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storm hit and things went bad. And trying to figure out what
was going on, Jonah said, look in verse 1, chapter 1, verse 12,
just throw me forth over into the sea.
I'm the problem. Then you might remember a great
fish swallowed him, the Bible says.
And he resided in the belly of that fish 3 days and three
nights. Jonah 117 Now the Lord had
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prepared a great fish to swallowup Jonah, and Jonah was in the
belly of the fish for three daysand three nights.
This is what she called enforcedhumility, and it was enough to
cause Jonah to confess his sins of disobedience.
Listen to what he did. And Jonah 21 and two, he
confessed his sin while he was in the belly of the great fish.
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Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,
and said, I cried by reason of my affliction to the Lord, and
he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and you heard my
voice once back, O dry land. How'd he get back to dry land?
Well, in Jonah 210, the Lord spoke to the fish, and it
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vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
And then God spoke to Jonah a second time, and Jonah 3-1 and
two. And the word of the Lord came
into Jonah the second time saying Arise and go to Nineveh,
that great city, and preaching to it.
The preaching that I tell you todo, I bid you.
What was Jonah's message? Well, his message was kind of
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frightening because it was the message that God told him that
the city would be defeated and overthrown in 40 days.
They were all going to die or becaptured.
And the response was immediate. Jonah chapter 3, verses 5
through 10. So the people of Nineveh believe
God, and proclaimed to fast, andput on sackcloth from the
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greatest of them, even to the least of them.
For the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he got up off
his throne, and he laid his robeaside and covered himself in a
sackcloth, and he sat in ashes. And he caused it to be
proclaimed and published throughout all of Nineveh by the
decree of the king and his nobles.
And he said, Let neither man, nor beast, nor herd, nor flock
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taste anything. Don't let them feed nor drink
any water, but let man and beastbe covered with sackcloth and
cry mightily to God. Hopefully He will turn everyone
from His evil way in the violence that was in their
hands. Who can tell that God will turn
and change His mind and turn away from His fierce anger that
we do not perish? In verse 10 of Jonah chapter 3,
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God saw what they did, that theyturned away from their evil ways
and He changed His mind about the evil that He had said He was
going to do to them and He did not do it.
Now you would think that would have encouraged Jonah, but
actually it just the opposite. I mean, Jonah was sent there to
preach the gospel, to hold a revival, to get the people to
turn away from their sin and turn to God, but he wasn't happy
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about it. It said in Jonah 4/2 he prayed
unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was this not what
I said when I was yet in my country?
That's why I fled to Tarsus where I knew you that you are a
gracious God, You're merciful, You're slow to anger and of
great kindness and repentance Thee of the evil.
Therefore now Lord, take, I beseech thee my life from me,
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for it's better for me to live to die than to live.
He he's actually asking God to kill him because these people
all turned to the Lord. He didn't care for him very
much. He was actually full of self
pity and he had to learn a very,very hard lesson.
So God used to gourd, had a little worm to teach Jonah the
lesson and the lesson is that the souls of men are much more
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valuable than a gourd and Jonah 41 And should not I spare
Nineveh, that great city whereinare more sick, more than six
score thousand persons, they cannot discern between their
right hand and their left hand and also much cattle.
This incident that I just read to you, you should read the book
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of Jonah sometime. It's the first recorded national
revival in the biblical history.So please allow me to define
what a revival actually is and what a revival is not.
First, a revival is a spiritual awakening.
It is not a social movement. Politics has nothing to do with
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a spiritual awakening. Now, if you, if you'll think
back about it, when our Lord Jesus Christ was walking on this
earth, you might remember that Rome was in control of Israel.
They were under the domination of the Roman army and nowhere we
know how how absolutely sick theRomans were, some of the weird
things they did. But nowhere did you find the
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Lord Jesus Christ telling the disciples to preach against
their sins. He told them to lift me up, tell
them about me, tell them who I am.
The disciples job was not to clean up the devil's world.
The disciples job was to lift upthe Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, there've been a lot ofpro high profile evangelist in
America within the last 100 years.
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Couple of names you may be familiar with are like Billy
Graham and Billy Sunday. Both of these men conducted
citywide crusades across the nation and led many people to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have organizations like
Campus Crusade, Youth for Christ, Navigators, and they
reached into high schools and colleges as well as the military
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with much success. I myself spoke to hundreds and
hundreds of students in both public and private schools all
the way from 1969 to the year 2022.
Many of those that I spoke to asked to be saved.
The question that I want to ask you is where did all these new
believers end up? Did they wind up having a
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national impact and bring America back to seeking to serve
God? A new Christian has much to
learn in order to understand God's will individually and
nationally. That's why most evangelists seek
to connect the new convert with a local church.
I believe the local church is infact the classroom for the
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Christian. The instructor of that classroom
is the pastor teacher, and the textbook is the Holy Bible.
As in any classroom, academic discipline must be considered,
must be held. But never forget that in school
you're tested on what you learned or you didn't learn.
I remember a few tests I took. I tried to cheat my way through
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it and that didn't work. God does the same thing.
He's going to test you to see ifyou believed and applied what
you learned when your pastor stood in the pulpit and taught
you the word of God in first Peter 412 beloved, thinking not
strange concerning the fiery trials, which is to try you as
though something strange had happened unto you.
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In other words, you're going to be tested.
God's going to put you through afiery test to determine if you
learned how to apply His word toyour situation.
In First Corinthians 10/13 therehas no temptation taken you but
such as common demand. But God is faithful that He will
not suffer you to be tempted above that which you're able,
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but will with a temptation also make a way of escape that you'll
be able to bear it. When I got saved, 1968, actually
in 1967 when I got saved, I was given a small pocket New
Testament and I was told to readthe book of John.
And of course I did that. I got into a good local church
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where the pastor taught the Bible.
But I was I was never able to completely sort things out.
What exactly was I to believe and what exactly was I to do?
So I enrolled in Bible college, but still no one taught me the
mechanics to the Christian life.I learned about the Bible.
I learned all the books of the Bible, who wrote them what, at
what time of the year they were written, what they were about.
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But nobody gave me the mechanicsto the Christian life.
It was almost two years after myconversion before I met the
pastor who would teach me the things I needed to understand in
order to have an effective life in ministry.
It may be that way with you, too.
Maybe you've been a Christian a long time and you've been in
your church a long time, but you've heard me talk about
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spiritual mechanics and you've never heard that before.
You've learned things you've never learned before by
listening to this radio show. And I thank God for your hunger
and for your desire to have a spiritual awakening in this
country. A revival that has lasting
spiritual impact must start withlearning.
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That's where it has to start. So if we had people that get
saved like through Billy Graham Crusade or through Billy Sunday
Crusade or through Campus Crusade or Young Life or
Navigator, people get saved. The first thing they have to do
is learn something. You know the very reason the
nation is destroyed like us. God told Hosea 4-6 to tell the
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people this. My people are destroyed for lack
of knowledge. You hear that?
Not because they're nasty doing nasty things, but lack of
knowledge. Because you rejected knowledge.
I will reject you and you will no longer be a priest or nation
to me because you forgot the laws of your God and I'm going
to forget your children as well.So never forget that.
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In Jeremiah 924, God said he looking for those who know Him
and understand him. That takes some knowledge.
You may know God, but you might not understand the God you know.
The problem with that is you wind up doing all the right
things in all the wrong way, andthat's all manifested at the
judgement seat of Christ when you show up with a big pile of
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wood, hay, and stubble. So don't forget that he's
looking for those people that understand him.
If you try to humanize God, if you try to make him think and
act like you do, that's a terrible mistake.
The first thing a new Christian has to do is he has to learn how
to think differently. You can read about that in
Romans 12/1 through Threes whereit says stop thinking in terms
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of arrogance beyond what you should think, but think in terms
of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of
thinking from his word. Also Philippians 25 tells us to
let this mind that was in ChristJesus being us, which
technically means we're to thinkdivine viewpoint.
We're to think like Christ thought and that's means we have
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to change our way of thinking. And arrogance is the big enemy.
Stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what
you should. That means.
Quit justifying your sin. Quit trying to act like it's OK.
You have to admit what it is andconfess it to God.
That's the first thing you have to learn.
You have to learn how to deal with your sin in Caucasian.
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What does that mean? Fixing beliefs in your mind
through repetition. Repetition.
Repetition in Caucasian requiresyou listening, you learning, and
then you applying what you learn.
You listen, you learn, you apply.
Can't learn anything if you sleep through church, I promise.
You need to be in church with a Bible and a notebook, taking
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notes down and reading those notes when you get home.
Also in Ezekiel 3331, listen to this word.
They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit
before thee as my people, and they hear your words.
Now listen, here it comes. But they won't do them, for with
their mouth they show much love,but with their heart go after
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after their own covetousness. Now there's a picture of
somebody that's playing a game. Learning how to execute the
Christian life is the first steptowards the national revival.
Something I want desperately andsomething you want desperately
to. I want people to get saved and
to come to know Jesus Christ as their savior.
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And I want people that are Christians and in fact people
that already know Christ to havehis new hunger to learn God's
word, a renewed hunger in their life.
Throughout the New Testament we are told to study, to show
herself approved to God, a Workman that needed not to be
ashamed. Second Timothy 215.
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Learning how to execute Christian life is critical.
Those people that use their volition to reject the mechanics
of true worship. So God gave them the
consequences of their spiritual unfaithfulness in Hosea chapter
4 they had they rejected God's word.
Did he want to learn anything? So God rejected them due to
their even the priests were ignorant of God's laws.
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Now you can be approved and you can be disapproved.
Let me read it again. Second Timothy 215 study to show
thyself approved unto God at work when that needeth not to be
ashamed for rightly dividing theword of truth.
It's critical that you understand that the first thing
necessary for a lasting spiritual awakening is to have a
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desire to lift up and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must see individuals as someone that God loves, someone
He sent His Son to pay for theirsins, their race, or their
politics is not an issue. It's not the issue when you're
seeking to present the gospel. Never talk about politics.
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I can assure you the disciples never talked politics about Rome
and what the Rome was doing. They talked about Jesus Christ
and lifted him up. Of course, you may have an
individual not interested in that gospel.
He would rather get into political discourse with you.
And if that's the case, here's my suggestion.
Bid them farewell and move on down the road.
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You're wasting your time talkingto them.
But a true revival, a true revival that we will have see
happen in this nation will include many unbelievers coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ to receive forgiveness.
And of course, if that happens, Satan's going to try to confuse
the issue. He'll give a counterfeit gospel
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and he'll use, well, many Christians who wind up
misrepresenting God and his freegrace offering.
That happens every day, even today and through social media
that I see on things like Facebook or Instagram, and I see
preachers giving a false gospel,telling you things that you must
do to be saved. The only thing you have to do to
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be saved is exactly what Paul told the Romans jailer in Acts
1631. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved and the household.
A true revival will result in many individuals coming to
Christ. On the other hand, I want to
introduce you to a term called spiritual renewal, not a
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revival, but a spiritual renewal, and that's believers
getting a renewed interest in the Scriptures.
In order for there to be a national change in America in
the direction that we're headed,there must be a revival and a
renewal. I'm sorry to say there appears
to be very little spiritual renewal in America.
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There does seem to be some sort of interest in spiritual issues
beginning on how do I get saved,but Satan has done a good job of
infiltrating the message with much false doctrine.
I hear pastors telling folks to repent of their sins, for
example. Unfortunately that's not how you
get saved, by changing your lifeand repenting of your sins.
Romans 5 one and two tells a different story.
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Therefore, being justified by faith, not repentance, but by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith unto this grace wherein we
stand and rejoice in the hope ofthe glory of God, by faith, by
faith, for by grace are you saved through faith.
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It's the gift of God, not of works, as anyone would brag
about it. All of our sins were paid for on
the cross, every last one of them.
He took our place, He received our punishment.
You will not be judged for your sins.
That's not why people go to hellbecause they're sinners.
People go to hell because they reject Jesus Christ as Savior.
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Listen to John 318. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believethnot, let's reject Christ as
Savior is condemned already because he hath not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God.
That's pretty plain, isn't it? National revival starts with a
maximum number of individuals coming to believe that Jesus is
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God's uniquely born Son, that Heis the one who makes us
righteous to the point of salvation, not because we
promise to turn our back on sin and behave in the future.
In 2nd Corinthians 521, this is about the Lord Jesus Christ, for
He has made him to be sin for us, the one that knew no sin, so
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him or
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through him. Not by repenting, not by doing
something crazy, but by believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ. John 1232 And if I be lifted up
from the earth, I will draw all men unto me.
First Corinthians 118 For the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolish, but unto us which are saved.
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It's the power of God, the most powerful thing in the world.
It's the story of the Lord JesusChrist and the forgiveness that
He offers through the means of the cross.
He went to that cross. He took your place.
My place died in our place, resurrected from the dead,
walked out of out of the grave and walked into heaven.
And he's alive now, awaiting theLord's Father's order to come
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back and get us. That'll happen soon, I promise
you. Revival in America may be
possible if witnesses give the correct information, but renewal
in America is going to be different.
It's going to require much more than disbelieving.
Believing is how you get saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
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and thou shalt be saved. But growing requires a daily,
daily, daily decision. If you can't get with it that
way, if you can't start studyingand growing on a daily basis,
then you're never going to have a spiritual renewal.
The key is if My people, where they're called by My name, will
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humble themselves, turn for their wicked ways and seek My
face, then I'll hear their prayer and heal their land.
That's believers. God is wanting you to get a
hunger to learn about Him. God is wanting you to have an
insatiable hunger in your soul, a thirst in your soul to learn
all you can about God in His Word.
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And yet you have kids, you have a job, you have a hobby.
You don't even listen to the Bible teach.
Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
You have a source of informationin front of you and you won't
even take time to do it because you're too busy.
And yet when the bottom falls out, when things go bad, you're
going to become running to God. Then oh God, oh God, save me,
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I'm having a rough time. Oh God, pull a genie out of the
8 bottle and save me. Until you come to the place
where you're hungry to grow, hungry to understand.
I've only run across probably a couple of hands full of people
like this in my lifetime and so many years of traveling.
People that have a hunger for God's word, they hear it taught.
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It rings a bell just like this radio show.
Maybe it rang a bell with you. Maybe you said this.
The first time I ever heard anybody teach like this.
It's the first time I ever heardthese things explained to me.
I want to know more and I get letters every day from people
saying I want to know more. Can you send me one of your
books? Can you send me something to
study? Can you tell me how to grow?
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Can you tell me where I can finda great pastor?
Unfortunately, there's not a great pastor in every city that
I know about. But revival in America could be
possible if witnesses like you give correct information, gospel
information, and don't water it down, don't mix it up.
But renewal, not revival. Renewal in America is going to
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require much, much more. Again, salvation is a one time
decision, but spiritual renewal is a daily decision.
For spiritual renewal, the protocol plan of God must be
learned. It must be learned and it must
be followed. If that were to happen, then
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there's no telling how much blessing God would pour out over
our nation. It's there.
It's there for you if you want to learn it.
If you want to grow, you got to grow.
The Bible says grow in the graceand knowledge of your Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. You can answer that question.
Are you growing spiritually or are you just treading water?
Sure, you're saved. Sure you've accepted Christ as
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your Savior. But are you growing?
What do you know about God's plan?
Do you understand the protocol plan of God?
Do you understand the ten problem solving devices that
make up the flight line in your soul?
Is that you? Or are you so busy doing other
things that you're grateful you got to take it out of out of
hell? You're going to heaven, that's
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for sure, but you don't have time for the rest of it.
That's really a shame. Please, I beg of you, we must
have spiritual renewal, must have Christians that are hungry
to learn God's word. If that's you, contact me
immediately. Get home to my website,
rickhughesministries.org. Take a look at those books that
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we offer. We can provide you with tons of
information and it's all free. If you don't have a good pastor,
write me a letter through that web, through the website, and
we'll tell you where there's a pastor where you can learn and
grow, maybe not face to face. Maybe you might have to do it
over the Internet. There are a lot of great pastors
teaching a lot of great doctrine, if you'll just take
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the time to do it. So please, I beg you, renew your
spiritual life. We used to call that, and come
forward and rededicate your lifeto the Lord.
I'm not asking you to come forward and rededicate your
life. I'm just asking you to get a
renewal, a hunger to grow, to learn to, to apply God's Word in
your life. Why?
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So that you will be able to represent Jesus Christ to your
nation, to your friends, to yourfamily.
That's what it's all about. Your growth allows you to
represent Jesus Christ so that when people see you, then they
in fact see Christ. Does that make sense?
Oh, I sure hope so. Again, Rick
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hughesministries.org, tons of material there for you to study
and learn. A new book coming out real soon
called Understanding Your Soul. You'll be able to get that book.
It's free of charge, like all our material.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for being with me
today. And it's my prayer that you'll
come back next week when we showback up.
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My voice is a little raspy. You just have to put up with
that. But we're doing OK.
We're hanging in there. So thank you for your prayers,
thank you for your support, thank you for your
encouragement. And May God get all the glory
for everything that you and I both do.
OK, see you next week. Thank you.
Thank you for listening. To the Flood Lion with your
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host, Rick Hughes. If you'd like to contact Rick,
please write to him at PO Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama 35O54 or
online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
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.
Good morning and welcome to the Floodline.
I'm your host, Rick Hughes. And for the next few minutes,
(00:30):
please stick around. It won't be long.
Only 30 minutes of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot of
education, and absolutely no manipulation.
Because we're not going to con you.
We're not going to ask you for money.
We're not going to try to solicit funds, sell you
anything. We just want to give you
something. We want to give you the
information found in the Bible to try to verify and identify
(00:51):
God's plan for your life. If we can do that, then you can
Orient, adjust the plan should you decide to do so.
But I thank you for listening tothe Flightline Radio show. 21
years we've been broadcasting this radio show and it's been a
wonderful, wonderful blessing inmy life to be able to bring you
this information and remind you that our 800 number is not
(01:12):
working right now. We changed telephone service and
they got something mixed up and we're not able to get 800 calls.
We're trying our best to get that back on the air, but you
can always contact us through the website
thatsrickhughesministries.org, rickhughesministries.org and you
there. You can order our books.
(01:33):
We have another new book coming out called Understanding Your
Soul. Hopefully it'll be out by
Thanksgiving and I think you maywant to get that book.
It's going to be one of our bestwe've done yet.
OK. In my last radio broadcast, I
made a statement to you that I hoped would resonate.
I said this, there will never bea revival in America if
believers do not learn how to pray.
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Again, there will never be a revival in America that
believers don't learn how to pray.
I don't know if you want a revival.
I'd like to see a revival, but let we need to identify what a
revival is. The first revival that I
actually preached I conducted was in a small Baptist Church in
Leeds, AL, about 19, maybe 1970.That's a long time ago.
(02:20):
Every night I spoke, giving an open invitation for people to
come forward and receive Christ.I also was invited to host a
revival in Gulfport, Ms. But thelocal pastor wanted to collect a
love offering for me, and I refused to do that.
So that didn't go for very well because I don't understand how
you could invite people to come hear somebody preach the gospel
(02:41):
and then try to ask them for money.
So we didn't do that one. But the first nationwide revival
is taught in the book of Jonah in the Old Testament.
It occurred in the town of Nineveh.
You might remember that God directly told Jonah go to
Nineveh and Jonah chapter one, verse 2, go to Nineveh and cry
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against it, for their wickednesshas come up before me.
However, dear Jonah refused to do that.
He said, Nope, I'm not going to do that.
I don't like those people. And instead he boarded a boat
bound for Tarsus, fleeing from the Lord's erection.
It appeared that he preferred todie rather than preach to the
people in Nineveh. And that's actually when the
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storm hit and things went bad. And trying to figure out what
was going on, Jonah said, look in verse 1, chapter 1, verse 12,
just throw me forth over into the sea.
I'm the problem. Then you might remember a great
fish swallowed him, the Bible says.
And he resided in the belly of that fish 3 days and three
nights. Jonah 117 Now the Lord had
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prepared a great fish to swallowup Jonah, and Jonah was in the
belly of the fish for three daysand three nights.
This is what she called enforcedhumility, and it was enough to
cause Jonah to confess his sins of disobedience.
Listen to what he did. And Jonah 21 and two, he
confessed his sin while he was in the belly of the great fish.
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Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,
and said, I cried by reason of my affliction to the Lord, and
he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, and you heard my
voice once back, O dry land. How'd he get back to dry land?
Well, in Jonah 210, the Lord spoke to the fish, and it
(04:27):
vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
And then God spoke to Jonah a second time, and Jonah 3-1 and
two. And the word of the Lord came
into Jonah the second time saying Arise and go to Nineveh,
that great city, and preaching to it.
The preaching that I tell you todo, I bid you.
What was Jonah's message? Well, his message was kind of
(04:52):
frightening because it was the message that God told him that
the city would be defeated and overthrown in 40 days.
They were all going to die or becaptured.
And the response was immediate. Jonah chapter 3, verses 5
through 10. So the people of Nineveh believe
God, and proclaimed to fast, andput on sackcloth from the
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greatest of them, even to the least of them.
For the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he got up off
his throne, and he laid his robeaside and covered himself in a
sackcloth, and he sat in ashes. And he caused it to be
proclaimed and published throughout all of Nineveh by the
decree of the king and his nobles.
And he said, Let neither man, nor beast, nor herd, nor flock
(05:34):
taste anything. Don't let them feed nor drink
any water, but let man and beastbe covered with sackcloth and
cry mightily to God. Hopefully He will turn everyone
from His evil way in the violence that was in their
hands. Who can tell that God will turn
and change His mind and turn away from His fierce anger that
we do not perish? In verse 10 of Jonah chapter 3,
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God saw what they did, that theyturned away from their evil ways
and He changed His mind about the evil that He had said He was
going to do to them and He did not do it.
Now you would think that would have encouraged Jonah, but
actually it just the opposite. I mean, Jonah was sent there to
preach the gospel, to hold a revival, to get the people to
turn away from their sin and turn to God, but he wasn't happy
(06:22):
about it. It said in Jonah 4/2 he prayed
unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was this not what
I said when I was yet in my country?
That's why I fled to Tarsus where I knew you that you are a
gracious God, You're merciful, You're slow to anger and of
great kindness and repentance Thee of the evil.
Therefore now Lord, take, I beseech thee my life from me,
(06:46):
for it's better for me to live to die than to live.
He he's actually asking God to kill him because these people
all turned to the Lord. He didn't care for him very
much. He was actually full of self
pity and he had to learn a very,very hard lesson.
So God used to gourd, had a little worm to teach Jonah the
lesson and the lesson is that the souls of men are much more
(07:09):
valuable than a gourd and Jonah 41 And should not I spare
Nineveh, that great city whereinare more sick, more than six
score thousand persons, they cannot discern between their
right hand and their left hand and also much cattle.
This incident that I just read to you, you should read the book
(07:30):
of Jonah sometime. It's the first recorded national
revival in the biblical history.So please allow me to define
what a revival actually is and what a revival is not.
First, a revival is a spiritual awakening.
It is not a social movement. Politics has nothing to do with
(07:51):
a spiritual awakening. Now, if you, if you'll think
back about it, when our Lord Jesus Christ was walking on this
earth, you might remember that Rome was in control of Israel.
They were under the domination of the Roman army and nowhere we
know how how absolutely sick theRomans were, some of the weird
things they did. But nowhere did you find the
(08:14):
Lord Jesus Christ telling the disciples to preach against
their sins. He told them to lift me up, tell
them about me, tell them who I am.
The disciples job was not to clean up the devil's world.
The disciples job was to lift upthe Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, there've been a lot ofpro high profile evangelist in
America within the last 100 years.
(08:35):
Couple of names you may be familiar with are like Billy
Graham and Billy Sunday. Both of these men conducted
citywide crusades across the nation and led many people to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have organizations like
Campus Crusade, Youth for Christ, Navigators, and they
reached into high schools and colleges as well as the military
(08:58):
with much success. I myself spoke to hundreds and
hundreds of students in both public and private schools all
the way from 1969 to the year 2022.
Many of those that I spoke to asked to be saved.
The question that I want to ask you is where did all these new
believers end up? Did they wind up having a
(09:21):
national impact and bring America back to seeking to serve
God? A new Christian has much to
learn in order to understand God's will individually and
nationally. That's why most evangelists seek
to connect the new convert with a local church.
I believe the local church is infact the classroom for the
(09:44):
Christian. The instructor of that classroom
is the pastor teacher, and the textbook is the Holy Bible.
As in any classroom, academic discipline must be considered,
must be held. But never forget that in school
you're tested on what you learned or you didn't learn.
I remember a few tests I took. I tried to cheat my way through
(10:05):
it and that didn't work. God does the same thing.
He's going to test you to see ifyou believed and applied what
you learned when your pastor stood in the pulpit and taught
you the word of God in first Peter 412 beloved, thinking not
strange concerning the fiery trials, which is to try you as
though something strange had happened unto you.
(10:27):
In other words, you're going to be tested.
God's going to put you through afiery test to determine if you
learned how to apply His word toyour situation.
In First Corinthians 10/13 therehas no temptation taken you but
such as common demand. But God is faithful that He will
not suffer you to be tempted above that which you're able,
(10:49):
but will with a temptation also make a way of escape that you'll
be able to bear it. When I got saved, 1968, actually
in 1967 when I got saved, I was given a small pocket New
Testament and I was told to readthe book of John.
And of course I did that. I got into a good local church
(11:10):
where the pastor taught the Bible.
But I was I was never able to completely sort things out.
What exactly was I to believe and what exactly was I to do?
So I enrolled in Bible college, but still no one taught me the
mechanics to the Christian life.I learned about the Bible.
I learned all the books of the Bible, who wrote them what, at
what time of the year they were written, what they were about.
(11:32):
But nobody gave me the mechanicsto the Christian life.
It was almost two years after myconversion before I met the
pastor who would teach me the things I needed to understand in
order to have an effective life in ministry.
It may be that way with you, too.
Maybe you've been a Christian a long time and you've been in
your church a long time, but you've heard me talk about
(11:53):
spiritual mechanics and you've never heard that before.
You've learned things you've never learned before by
listening to this radio show. And I thank God for your hunger
and for your desire to have a spiritual awakening in this
country. A revival that has lasting
spiritual impact must start withlearning.
(12:13):
That's where it has to start. So if we had people that get
saved like through Billy Graham Crusade or through Billy Sunday
Crusade or through Campus Crusade or Young Life or
Navigator, people get saved. The first thing they have to do
is learn something. You know the very reason the
nation is destroyed like us. God told Hosea 4-6 to tell the
(12:36):
people this. My people are destroyed for lack
of knowledge. You hear that?
Not because they're nasty doing nasty things, but lack of
knowledge. Because you rejected knowledge.
I will reject you and you will no longer be a priest or nation
to me because you forgot the laws of your God and I'm going
to forget your children as well.So never forget that.
(12:58):
In Jeremiah 924, God said he looking for those who know Him
and understand him. That takes some knowledge.
You may know God, but you might not understand the God you know.
The problem with that is you wind up doing all the right
things in all the wrong way, andthat's all manifested at the
judgement seat of Christ when you show up with a big pile of
(13:21):
wood, hay, and stubble. So don't forget that he's
looking for those people that understand him.
If you try to humanize God, if you try to make him think and
act like you do, that's a terrible mistake.
The first thing a new Christian has to do is he has to learn how
to think differently. You can read about that in
Romans 12/1 through Threes whereit says stop thinking in terms
(13:45):
of arrogance beyond what you should think, but think in terms
of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of
thinking from his word. Also Philippians 25 tells us to
let this mind that was in ChristJesus being us, which
technically means we're to thinkdivine viewpoint.
We're to think like Christ thought and that's means we have
(14:07):
to change our way of thinking. And arrogance is the big enemy.
Stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what
you should. That means.
Quit justifying your sin. Quit trying to act like it's OK.
You have to admit what it is andconfess it to God.
That's the first thing you have to learn.
You have to learn how to deal with your sin in Caucasian.
(14:30):
What does that mean? Fixing beliefs in your mind
through repetition. Repetition.
Repetition in Caucasian requiresyou listening, you learning, and
then you applying what you learn.
You listen, you learn, you apply.
Can't learn anything if you sleep through church, I promise.
You need to be in church with a Bible and a notebook, taking
(14:52):
notes down and reading those notes when you get home.
Also in Ezekiel 3331, listen to this word.
They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit
before thee as my people, and they hear your words.
Now listen, here it comes. But they won't do them, for with
their mouth they show much love,but with their heart go after
(15:16):
after their own covetousness. Now there's a picture of
somebody that's playing a game. Learning how to execute the
Christian life is the first steptowards the national revival.
Something I want desperately andsomething you want desperately
to. I want people to get saved and
to come to know Jesus Christ as their savior.
(15:37):
And I want people that are Christians and in fact people
that already know Christ to havehis new hunger to learn God's
word, a renewed hunger in their life.
Throughout the New Testament we are told to study, to show
herself approved to God, a Workman that needed not to be
ashamed. Second Timothy 215.
(15:59):
Learning how to execute Christian life is critical.
Those people that use their volition to reject the mechanics
of true worship. So God gave them the
consequences of their spiritual unfaithfulness in Hosea chapter
4 they had they rejected God's word.
Did he want to learn anything? So God rejected them due to
their even the priests were ignorant of God's laws.
(16:23):
Now you can be approved and you can be disapproved.
Let me read it again. Second Timothy 215 study to show
thyself approved unto God at work when that needeth not to be
ashamed for rightly dividing theword of truth.
It's critical that you understand that the first thing
necessary for a lasting spiritual awakening is to have a
(16:46):
desire to lift up and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must see individuals as someone that God loves, someone
He sent His Son to pay for theirsins, their race, or their
politics is not an issue. It's not the issue when you're
seeking to present the gospel. Never talk about politics.
(17:08):
I can assure you the disciples never talked politics about Rome
and what the Rome was doing. They talked about Jesus Christ
and lifted him up. Of course, you may have an
individual not interested in that gospel.
He would rather get into political discourse with you.
And if that's the case, here's my suggestion.
Bid them farewell and move on down the road.
(17:29):
You're wasting your time talkingto them.
But a true revival, a true revival that we will have see
happen in this nation will include many unbelievers coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ to receive forgiveness.
And of course, if that happens, Satan's going to try to confuse
the issue. He'll give a counterfeit gospel
(17:50):
and he'll use, well, many Christians who wind up
misrepresenting God and his freegrace offering.
That happens every day, even today and through social media
that I see on things like Facebook or Instagram, and I see
preachers giving a false gospel,telling you things that you must
do to be saved. The only thing you have to do to
(18:12):
be saved is exactly what Paul told the Romans jailer in Acts
1631. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved and the household.
A true revival will result in many individuals coming to
Christ. On the other hand, I want to
introduce you to a term called spiritual renewal, not a
(18:33):
revival, but a spiritual renewal, and that's believers
getting a renewed interest in the Scriptures.
In order for there to be a national change in America in
the direction that we're headed,there must be a revival and a
renewal. I'm sorry to say there appears
to be very little spiritual renewal in America.
(18:55):
There does seem to be some sort of interest in spiritual issues
beginning on how do I get saved,but Satan has done a good job of
infiltrating the message with much false doctrine.
I hear pastors telling folks to repent of their sins, for
example. Unfortunately that's not how you
get saved, by changing your lifeand repenting of your sins.
Romans 5 one and two tells a different story.
(19:18):
Therefore, being justified by faith, not repentance, but by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith unto this grace wherein we
stand and rejoice in the hope ofthe glory of God, by faith, by
faith, for by grace are you saved through faith.
(19:40):
It's the gift of God, not of works, as anyone would brag
about it. All of our sins were paid for on
the cross, every last one of them.
He took our place, He received our punishment.
You will not be judged for your sins.
That's not why people go to hellbecause they're sinners.
People go to hell because they reject Jesus Christ as Savior.
(20:02):
Listen to John 318. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believethnot, let's reject Christ as
Savior is condemned already because he hath not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God.
That's pretty plain, isn't it? National revival starts with a
maximum number of individuals coming to believe that Jesus is
(20:25):
God's uniquely born Son, that Heis the one who makes us
righteous to the point of salvation, not because we
promise to turn our back on sin and behave in the future.
In 2nd Corinthians 521, this is about the Lord Jesus Christ, for
He has made him to be sin for us, the one that knew no sin, so
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him or
(20:49):
through him. Not by repenting, not by doing
something crazy, but by believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ. John 1232 And if I be lifted up
from the earth, I will draw all men unto me.
First Corinthians 118 For the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolish, but unto us which are saved.
(21:09):
It's the power of God, the most powerful thing in the world.
It's the story of the Lord JesusChrist and the forgiveness that
He offers through the means of the cross.
He went to that cross. He took your place.
My place died in our place, resurrected from the dead,
walked out of out of the grave and walked into heaven.
And he's alive now, awaiting theLord's Father's order to come
(21:31):
back and get us. That'll happen soon, I promise
you. Revival in America may be
possible if witnesses give the correct information, but renewal
in America is going to be different.
It's going to require much more than disbelieving.
Believing is how you get saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
(21:53):
and thou shalt be saved. But growing requires a daily,
daily, daily decision. If you can't get with it that
way, if you can't start studyingand growing on a daily basis,
then you're never going to have a spiritual renewal.
The key is if My people, where they're called by My name, will
(22:14):
humble themselves, turn for their wicked ways and seek My
face, then I'll hear their prayer and heal their land.
That's believers. God is wanting you to get a
hunger to learn about Him. God is wanting you to have an
insatiable hunger in your soul, a thirst in your soul to learn
all you can about God in His Word.
(22:35):
And yet you have kids, you have a job, you have a hobby.
You don't even listen to the Bible teach.
Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about.
You have a source of informationin front of you and you won't
even take time to do it because you're too busy.
And yet when the bottom falls out, when things go bad, you're
going to become running to God. Then oh God, oh God, save me,
(22:55):
I'm having a rough time. Oh God, pull a genie out of the
8 bottle and save me. Until you come to the place
where you're hungry to grow, hungry to understand.
I've only run across probably a couple of hands full of people
like this in my lifetime and so many years of traveling.
People that have a hunger for God's word, they hear it taught.
(23:18):
It rings a bell just like this radio show.
Maybe it rang a bell with you. Maybe you said this.
The first time I ever heard anybody teach like this.
It's the first time I ever heardthese things explained to me.
I want to know more and I get letters every day from people
saying I want to know more. Can you send me one of your
books? Can you send me something to
study? Can you tell me how to grow?
(23:39):
Can you tell me where I can finda great pastor?
Unfortunately, there's not a great pastor in every city that
I know about. But revival in America could be
possible if witnesses like you give correct information, gospel
information, and don't water it down, don't mix it up.
But renewal, not revival. Renewal in America is going to
(24:03):
require much, much more. Again, salvation is a one time
decision, but spiritual renewal is a daily decision.
For spiritual renewal, the protocol plan of God must be
learned. It must be learned and it must
be followed. If that were to happen, then
(24:24):
there's no telling how much blessing God would pour out over
our nation. It's there.
It's there for you if you want to learn it.
If you want to grow, you got to grow.
The Bible says grow in the graceand knowledge of your Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. You can answer that question.
Are you growing spiritually or are you just treading water?
Sure, you're saved. Sure you've accepted Christ as
(24:46):
your Savior. But are you growing?
What do you know about God's plan?
Do you understand the protocol plan of God?
Do you understand the ten problem solving devices that
make up the flight line in your soul?
Is that you? Or are you so busy doing other
things that you're grateful you got to take it out of out of
hell? You're going to heaven, that's
(25:06):
for sure, but you don't have time for the rest of it.
That's really a shame. Please, I beg of you, we must
have spiritual renewal, must have Christians that are hungry
to learn God's word. If that's you, contact me
immediately. Get home to my website,
rickhughesministries.org. Take a look at those books that
(25:28):
we offer. We can provide you with tons of
information and it's all free. If you don't have a good pastor,
write me a letter through that web, through the website, and
we'll tell you where there's a pastor where you can learn and
grow, maybe not face to face. Maybe you might have to do it
over the Internet. There are a lot of great pastors
teaching a lot of great doctrine, if you'll just take
(25:48):
the time to do it. So please, I beg you, renew your
spiritual life. We used to call that, and come
forward and rededicate your lifeto the Lord.
I'm not asking you to come forward and rededicate your
life. I'm just asking you to get a
renewal, a hunger to grow, to learn to, to apply God's Word in
your life. Why?
(26:09):
So that you will be able to represent Jesus Christ to your
nation, to your friends, to yourfamily.
That's what it's all about. Your growth allows you to
represent Jesus Christ so that when people see you, then they
in fact see Christ. Does that make sense?
Oh, I sure hope so. Again, Rick
(26:30):
hughesministries.org, tons of material there for you to study
and learn. A new book coming out real soon
called Understanding Your Soul. You'll be able to get that book.
It's free of charge, like all our material.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for being with me
today. And it's my prayer that you'll
come back next week when we showback up.
(26:51):
My voice is a little raspy. You just have to put up with
that. But we're doing OK.
We're hanging in there. So thank you for your prayers,
thank you for your support, thank you for your
encouragement. And May God get all the glory
for everything that you and I both do.
OK, see you next week. Thank you.
Thank you for listening. To the Flood Lion with your
(27:12):
host, Rick Hughes. If you'd like to contact Rick,
please write to him at PO Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama 35O54 or
online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
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