SPEAKER 02 : 0:06

Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:22

Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes. This is show 917. What does that mean? It means that we’ve been on the radio 917 Sundays. You can figure that one out for yourself, how many years that is, but we’ve been trusting the Lord to provide our needs for 917 Sundays as we bring you these radio shows without charge, without begging for money, without trying to sell anything. We simply believe God’s in it. He will pay for it. It’s my joy to give you this information to help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life, not to try to manipulate you in any way, but to give you accurate information. Today, I want to talk about how to get wealthy. Uh-oh, everybody likes that. Let’s get wealthy. I want to win the lottery. If I win the lottery, I won’t be unhappy anymore. That’s a lie. Lottery winners are very unhappy sometimes, but happiness does not depend on you having a lot of money. That’s not the key to happiness. I’m going to show you today what is the key to having wealth in this life, and you will be surprised to see what God has to say about it. We’ll start off with 2 Corinthians 4, verses 7 through 11. You ready? But we have this treasure in earthly vessels. Treasure, get that word treasure. In earthly vessels, so that the expediency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not in distress. We are perplexed, but not in despair. We are persecuted, but not forsaken. We are cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus might be made manifested in our own bodies. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. That’s Paul writing to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 4, 7 through 11. I want to break that down for you and show you what he’s talking about, the treasure and all of this involved with it. But first, let me say this. We call this show The Flotline. If you’ve been a frequent listener, you’re aware The Flotline is a military metaphor referring to the main line of resistance built in your soul based on 10 unique problem-solving devices. These problem-solving devices are not some new discovery that we are trying to market or sell to you. They are simply biblical solutions to everyday temptations and everyday testing. I myself was first made aware of these by my pastor many years ago. He was the one that recognized these doctrines and presented them to his own congregation. And I learned under his ministry these concepts that I now present to you by this radio show. His name was R.B. Thiem Jr., and his church was located in Houston, Texas. He pastored that church for over 50 years, and his teachings are still available today through R.B. Thiem, T-H-I-E-M-E, T-H-I-E-M-E, R.B. Thiem Bible Ministries. You can go to the Internet and look them up. That’s where I learned this information. With his blessings, I reteach it to you. So let’s look at some of these verses that we’re talking about and try to develop what they’re telling us. Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 4, 7-11, we have this treasure in our earthly bodies. Well, okay, treasure in our earthly bodies. The word treasure is the word thesaurus, the Greek word thesaurus, and obviously it’s a word treasure. So what treasure is he speaking of? Well, in verse six of 2 Corinthians chapter four, this is what we find. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has now shined into our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That’s the greatest treasure you could have. The knowledge of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ from death, burial to his resurrection. Here we see that this treasure of information was revealed to us through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the teacher. He was the revealer. This verse says God commanded. Listen to it again. Verse six of second Corinthians four. God commanded the light to shine out of darkness. Commanded which was a sovereign decision made in eternity past by God the Father And this indicates the difference between light and darkness. We live in darkness. We live in the devil’s world. We live in a blacked-out world. And to make our way through that world, we need a light. We need the light of the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He’s the light of the world, and we are supposed to be lights as well. So the point is that God, in his unfailing love for the human race, says, Reveal to all of us his redemptive process by revealing Jesus Christ as anointed son. You may think that some people don’t have a chance to hear the gospel, and that’s never true. The Bible says in Romans chapter one, they’re without excuse. Anybody can look up and see the stars and see the heavens and see the earth and see the creation and say, who made this? Somebody must have made this. And if that person wants to know God, that’s called God consciousness. If that person wants to know God at God consciousness, they will get the gospel. The justice of God promises that no one would ever go to hell without hearing the truth. But if you’re at God consciousness or negative and you say, well, I believe the rock is God. I believe the tree is God. I believe the son is God. If you believe that, even if you heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, you would reject that one also. So to be saved, there’s two points in your life you come to where you must be positive. You must be positive in God consciousness. You must want to know God and you must be positive at God, the gospel hearing where you want to know Christ. I remember distinctly those two things happening to me when I was 11 years old. I was made aware of God while I was at a camp in Mississippi where my mother had sent me to spend the summer because I was a incorrigible young man. And there they revealed to me the essence of God, talked to me about God, talked to me about the Bible, but I never really clearly understand the gospel, never understood the gospel. But when I was 22, then I heard the gospel clearly and I had to make another decision. Do I want to know Christ? And fortunately for me, I did make that decision. I made that decision to believe in Christ and receive him as my savior. So this treasure that we’re talking about in our earthly bodies is God commanding the light to shine out of darkness into our hearts. He revealed Christ to us. He gave us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God through the face of Jesus Christ. This verse says God commanded. That’s a sovereign decision. The point is God in his unfailing love revealed to every member of the human race his redemptive process by revealing Jesus Christ, his anointed son. All treasure, every treasure has provided, that God has provided is provided through Christ Let me say that again. All treasure God has provided is provided through Christ Jesus, beginning with the free gift of eternal life, which could obviously never be purchased, not with any amount of gold or silver. You can’t buy it. It’s a free gift. The gift of God is salvation. For by grace are we saved through faith. It’s a gift of God, not of works. But someone would brag about it. You can’t buy salvation. You can’t earn your way to heaven by being good. You’re not getting credits every time you do good things. You’re either in Christ Jesus or you’re not in Christ Jesus. That’s up to you. The point is that God in his unfailing love provided the Lord Jesus Christ for the human race. All treasure that God has provided comes through Christ. So Paul stated in verse seven that we have this treasure in our earthly bodies, and that’s a direct reference to the confidence that we possess now in our souls based on God’s promises, God’s ordinances, God’s words. See, once we believe in Christ, Once we accept him as our Savior, the process is that we start accumulating information relating to the essence of God. You know, God said, I want people to know me and understand me. So yes, you know God. Do you understand him? Do you understand his sovereignty, righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, and veracity? Do you understand that? Do you understand what those things mean? How can you love a God you don’t even understand? I just gave you the essence box of God, 10 things that make up his essence. If you don’t know what those are, you can’t love God. You may have an emotional attachment to God. You may sing, oh, I love Jesus, but you don’t really love him. If you don’t know him, if you don’t understand him, we’re not talking about an emotional attachment. We’re talking about a mental devotion to the person of Christ. So keep that in mind. All treasure was revealed to us through Christ Jesus, and it’s in our earthly bodies. See, once we believe in Christ, again, we accumulate information related to the essence of God so that we are built up in our souls, and the knowledge of those things is a great value. What’s the value? Well, by understanding God, Understanding his word, it fuels your faith. Fuels your faith. Say it again. The knowledge is of great value since it fuels your faith. God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shine into your heart to give you the knowledge, knowledge, knowledge of the glory of God. That knowledge fuels your faith. Listen, faith must have something to act upon. And in this case, it’s the revealed knowledge of Christ Jesus and God’s redemptive plan through faith and the finished work of Christ on the cross and the way that he conquered all death through the resurrection. Yep, walked out of the tomb alive. People couldn’t believe it, could not believe it. Mary went back and said, he’s gone. Somebody must have stolen the body. Nobody stole the body. He walked out of the grave and appeared to the disciples alive. And he was seen by hundreds of people. And this is a guarantee for you that you, when you die. When you leave this earth, when you get out of this body, your soul does not die, your spirit does not die. You will go to be with the Father, and you will get a resurrection body, just like the Lord Jesus Christ has, a resurrection body. That’s the body you will live in forever. So according to Paul’s writing, This knowledge, knowledge God provided for you, this knowledge is power. And of such power comes from God and not from self. The power that he’s speaking of is what we call on our show a flat line in your soul. Notice in verse 8, Paul said, we have trouble on every side, but we have no what? We have no stress. He went on to say in 2 Corinthians 4, 8, we have trouble on every side. We have no stress. He went on to say we’re without resources but not in despair. This indicates that Paul had a totally relaxed mental attitude using problem-solving device number three, the faith rest drill. The flatline in his soul means the command post of his soul, which is his mentality, was not overrun by worry or self-pity. This applies in my ministry as well because we have a tremendous burden on us. As we buy time in over 100 radio stations every week, it’s not free. We have to trust God to pay for that, and we do. And so we don’t sit around and worry about whether or not it’s going to happen. He said he would pay for it. If he’s in it, he provides. And our job is to just simply drive on and not worry about trying to raise money, not worry about trying to say, well, you know, it’s okay to charge for the book or it’s okay to do this. No, it’s not. Nothing’s okay. We don’t sell. We don’t beg for money. If you want to give, you can. That’s fine. We’re not out here beating the bushes trying to raise money. We have a relaxed mental attitude about it. That’s the faith rest drill. That’s the way we operate. And that’s the result of having a mature spiritual life. That’s what God wants for you. He wants you to have a mature spiritual life. He wants you to have a flat line in your soul, meaning that the command post in your soul, the mentality of your soul, is not overrun by fear, by worry, or by self-pity. So Paul said Christ may be manifested in our bodies, verse 10, so that Christ could be manifested in our bodies. What does that mean? It means that you have an opportunity as a believer to represent Jesus Christ by means of your very own spiritual life. by means of your very own thoughts and your very own deeds, you can represent Jesus Christ to your family. You can represent Jesus Christ to your friends. You can represent Jesus Christ through your local church. Paul repeats this statement in 2 Corinthians 4, 11. He said this, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. This statement is reflecting the problem-solving devices, number 10 especially, called occupation with Christ. So listen to these two verses. Verse 10, that Christ may be manifested in our body. Verse 11, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. Both of those verses in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. This is occupation with Christ, problem-solving device number 10. That’s what it’s teaching. My pastor said this many years ago. He said, occupation with Christ is personal love for God the Son, and it comes from post-salvation, that’s after you get saved, learning the word of God. He had a big word. He used to use the word epistemological rehabilitation. I’d have to look that one up in the dictionary, but what it meant is by you continuing to study after you get saved, continuing to grow, continuing to learn, and changing the way you think. So occupation with Christ comes by this. When you study, when you grow, when you learn, you manifest the fact that the mystery doctrine of the church age has been and continues to be the number one priority in your life. And what is the mystery doctrine of the church age? What is that? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Listen, go look in the mirror. Christ is in you. He’s in you. You are the light of the world. He’s the light, and you are reflecting that light through you. That’s your objective as a mature believer, to represent Jesus Christ to your family, to your generation, to those that know you. Got it? Number one priority in your life. Represent Jesus Christ. In verse 8 of 1 Peter chapter 1, here, listen to what Peter said about it. Even though you have not seen him with your eyes, you love him. That’s occupation with Christ. Do you love him? You haven’t seen him and you love him. And though you don’t see him now, you believe in him and you greatly rejoice with inexpressible happiness and full of glory. That’s exactly what occupation with Christ gives you. Inexpressible happiness and full of glory. You haven’t seen him. Listen, if you’ve seen Jesus Christ face to face, you need to see a doctor. Because he hasn’t come back yet. He’s still at the right hand of the Father. When he comes back, then you’ll see him and every eye will see him. But if you saw him out in the woods one day when you were walking through the woods, you need to see a doctor because that wasn’t what you saw. What you can see is God’s word gets your eyes of your soul to see the future. And your faith acts on that. The believer full of glory, what does that mean? What does it mean when he says, even though you’ve not seen him, you love him, and though you don’t see him now, but you believe in him, you greatly rejoice, inexpressible happiness, and full of glory. Full of glory is an invisible glory to man, but it’s very, very visible to the angelic creatures. It’s the same Shekinah glory that filled the tabernacle in the Old Testament, and now fills the temple of the believer’s soul. You have a temple in your soul. It’s a tabernacle in your soul. First Corinthians teaches you this. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the Shekinah glory, indwells you, lives in you. It’s amazing. My pastor said these words years ago. Those who love Christ have made a role model out of our Lord. They are the believers who have true happiness and are spiritually self-sustaining. He went on to say this happiness is dependent upon the accumulation of the word of God in their stream of consciousness so that they don’t have any garbage in their soul. What does that mean? It means that you had to clean out the garbage in your soul by learning God’s word. It’s a filter process. The more the word of God you learn, the more your soul becomes clean. So you make a role model out of the Lord by making him the number one priority in your life. Number one priority in your life. So the mystery doctrine of the church age, Christ in you, the hope of glory. That mystery doctrine is described as thinking the mind of Christ. That’s what it’s described as in 1 Corinthians 2.16. Listen carefully. For who has known the thinking of the Lord that he should instruct him? But we, that’s church age believers like you and me, Under the function of a good pastor learning God’s word, we have the thinking of Christ. Again, the Bible says, let this mind be in you. It was also in Christ Jesus. And you don’t get it if you don’t learn it. You don’t get it if you don’t hear it. You don’t get it if you don’t study it. But if you study, learn, and apply, you are transformed. Stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what you should think, but think in terms of humility as God has assigned each one of us a standard of thinking from his word. The thinking of Christ in that verse, 1 Corinthians 2.16, is a direct reference to the mystery doctrine of the church. you and i cannot love jesus christ until we know how he thinks why because he’s invisible we can’t see him but perception and metabolization of the mystery doctrine of the church that’s how we come to personally love jesus christ christ in you the hope of glory christ in you the mystery doctrine of the church no one ever knew that before No one in the Old Testament ever knew that the Shekinah glory of the tabernacle was going to come and live inside of the church age believer. When you have the thinking of Christ, when you are occupied with Christ, in contrast to being preoccupied with people, when you get to that point in your life and you have the mental attitude, which is the thinking of our Lord Jesus Christ, then you develop the principles, the mind of Christ, thinking in the mind of Christ. If you think scripture, you’re thinking in the mind of Christ. Something happens to you, what do you do about it? What do you do? Well, nothing that has happened to you is uncommon to man. God provides a way out. We go to the promises and we use faith rest. Our Lord Jesus Christ used a faith rest drill. Our Lord Jesus Christ stayed filled with the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus Christ oriented to grace, taught his word, had a personal sense of destiny, loved his father, loved his disciples, shared his happiness with his disciples. That’s what you have to do. There are a couple of divine mandates you must remember here. with regard to being occupied with Christ. Let’s go through them real quick. Here’s one of them, Hebrews 12.2. Be concentrating on Jesus. That’s not a request, that’s a commandment. Be concentrating on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our doctrine, who because of the exhibited happiness, he endured the cross, disregarded the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. You hear that? He endured the cross, disregarded the shame and sat down at the right hand of the father. This is how he used problem solving devices. This is what he did. What’s the shame that he identified with? Tell me that. It’s the shame of our sins being poured out on him. Don’t you remember what he said? Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? All of my sin and your sin was dumped on him on the cross. That was the shame. And then he endured that. And then he sat down after the resurrection at the right hand of the Father, and he’s seated there today waiting to shout an order to go back. And he will come back, and he will take us home. 1 Peter 3.15, but sanctify. What does that mean? It means set apart. It’s more important than anything else in your life. This has to be number one priority in your life. Sanctify the Lord Jesus Christ in your hearts. Your spiritual life depends upon encouragement in Christ Jesus. And encouragement in Christ Jesus comes from the word of God given to church age believers like you and me. When we reach spiritual maturity, when we grow up, when we begin to be mature believers, our dependence on people ceases to exist and our dependence shifts to God. Why? Because we made a role model out of the person of Christ. So occupation with Christ, problem solving advice number 10, is the key to encouragement in Christ. It doesn’t depend upon any emotionalism. It doesn’t depend on any other human works. Occupation with Christ is structured entirely upon your perception of the word of God in your soul. And when you have suffering, when you have disaster, when you have shocks, when you have pressures, when you have This is when the problem-solving devices come in to kick in and handle those problems, and they become an encouragement in Christ Jesus. Listen, occupation with Christ is not going to some worship service and standing there with your hands up in the air singing, oh, I love Jesus for three hours. That’s not occupation with Christ. Occupation with Christ is acquiring the mind of Christ, re-presenting Christ in the way you think and live your life. The attainment of occupation with Christ is gradual. It’s not going to happen overnight. The Lord Jesus Christ becoming your role model starts out with a commandment in Ephesians 3.19. Come to know the love for Christ, which goes beyond gnosis knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God. That’s something you have to come to know. In 1 Corinthians 2.16, what does the Bible say there? Well, let me give it to you. For who has known the thinking of the Lord that we should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. So being occupied with Christ, problem solving advice number 10, is true motivation in life. False motivation leads to false doctrine. Wrong priorities produces garbage in your soul and failure in your experiences. But occupation with the Lord Jesus Christ eliminates human viewpoint thinking. Human viewpoint thinking makes you miserable and makes you argue with people about everything. Human viewpoint holds an opinion about everything in life and is intolerant of everybody else’s opinion. You cannot hold opinions to the point of agitation and ever execute God’s plan for your life. The key to the protocol plan of God is that we no longer live for ourselves, but we live for Christ Jesus and God does all the work. The only way you can ever have a marvelous life is to no longer live for yourself, Once you’ve occupied with Christ, you’re living for Christ and you will be happier than you’ve ever been when you live for yourself. Occupation with Christ is the greatest treasure man could possess. And it’s available to you by learning to think like he thinks or representing him in your own soul. I hope you’re considering these things. There’s a lot to say about it. If you need more information, contact me. You can always do that through our website, rickhughesministries.org.

SPEAKER 02 : 27:05

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.