In this transformative episode of The Flatline, host Rick Hughes illuminates the path to spiritual richness that stands apart from earthly wealth. With references from Corinthians and Proverbs, discover how treasures of wisdom and knowledge are tucked away in the divine scriptures, ready to enrich the soul. This thought-provoking conversation challenges common perceptions of prosperity and happiness, pointing listeners back to the scripture’s enduring truths. Rick introduces the concept of spiritual IQ and emphasizes the importance of consistent learning and application of God’s Word. As he expands his broadcast reach, Rick remains steadfast in his mission to uplift and
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now your host, Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and for the next few minutes, we’d like to give you a cordial invitation to stick around. Here’s some good news. Everybody listening to me today, everybody has a brain. Some of you guys have a really high IQ, and some of us are kind of middle of the rotors. How, rotors, that’s right, middle of the rotors. But in God’s wonderful plan, our human IQ can be supplemented by learning his word and developing what we call a spiritual IQ. How’s that done? Well, when the Holy Spirit controls your life, problem-solving device number three, and you take in God’s word on a consistent basis using your own volition to study and learn, Then this is what happens. The Holy Spirit transplants what’s in that Word of God, the Bible, into your soul, giving you phenomenal discernment and insight through the eyes of the Scripture. Save you a lot of mistakes. Save you a lot of money. Save you a lot of years of misery when you go by God’s plan for your life. So you might want to ask yourself, why does Rick do these radio shows? What benefit is it for me? And that’s a fair question because… As I expand these radio shows, and we’re adding now nine new stations, or eight or nine new stations this week, that’ll bring us up to 37 radio stations across America we broadcast this show. And this is 15 years of doing it. So you might want to say, why? What’s the deal? As I expand and add additional costs for the production and the broadcasts, The one thing I take comfort in is God’s grace provisions. He provides the finances and he provides the inspiration for me to bring the messages to you. That’s important because the objective is to make you wealthy, not financially. No, I’m not here to pronounce financial wealth. I don’t have any idea how to do that, but I can tell you how to be spiritually wealthy. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4, 7, we have this treasure in earthly vessels so that surpassing greatness with power will be of God and not of ourselves. We have this treasure in our earthly vessels. That’s our body. And the word for treasure may surprise you in the Greek New Testament. It’s a word you’re familiar with. It’s a word called thesaurus. A thesaurus, you know what that is. It’s a word treasure. And when you learn God’s word, you have a word treasure in your soul. It can save you a lot of misery, save you a lot of money when you listen to what God has to say. So listen to Colossians chapter two, verses two through three. Paul said that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth, wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding understanding the key word here resulting in the true knowledge of god’s mystery that is christ jesus himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge this is exactly what god said he wants you to do he wants you to know him and understand him in proverbs 3 13 how blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding For her profit, that’s wisdom, is better than the profit of silver. And her gain, that’s wisdom, better than that of fine gold. She’s more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire will compare with the wisdom of God. So that’s very interesting, isn’t it? When I first got saved, when I accepted Christ as my Savior, I really wondered about what to do after I got saved. I had a lot of questions as a young Christian. I had no church background, so I wasn’t influenced by organized religion. And as I grew, I sought the Lord’s will for my life, as you do. And I had a lot of influential men who tried to direct me into their way of thinking. But for some reason, it just didn’t click with me. I mean, they tried to make me something I was not. Maybe you’ve seen that in church. Eventually, I think the Holy Spirit directed me to a great pastor, a no-nonsense type guy who reminded me of my college football coach, the old Paul Bear Bryant from Alabama. Though he was a tough guy, but he was always fair. And this pastor that I got under, same way, very, very tough, but very, very fair and the best in the land. And I knew if I stuck with him that he would lead me correctly. And he did. That was in 1968. And today it’s the year 2020. He has been the man God has used to be the guiding light in my ministry and in my life. And what I hope to do is to direct you to that sort of pastor for you, the man God has for you. And that pastor’s job will be to teach you and make you rich, wealthy in God’s word. Because if you have spiritual wealth, then you are going to be dangerous to the enemy. You will be well equipped to see past all the scams, all the temptations, everything that he will throw at you that would seek to ruin your life. So what about it? Are you hungry? Are you ready to really seriously do it for real? I remember a friend of mine said, you know, I played with studying God’s Word, and I just goofed around with it. I was busy. I was working, and I didn’t take it serious. But when I decided to take it seriously… A lot of bad things started happening to me. Yes, Satan will attack you. If you put priority number one in your life, the Word of God, every day, if you’ll stay filled with the Holy Spirit and you’ll say, Father, this day I’m going to take in your Word and learn it and apply it into my life, You get under that right pastor teacher who provides it for you, you will find opposition like you’ve never seen before. Listen to Proverbs 8, 10 through 12. Take my instructions and not silver. This is wisdom speaking now. Coming to you from God is wisdom speaking to you. Wisdom says take my instruction and not silver and knowledge rather than the choicest gold. for wisdom is better than jewels, and all desirable things cannot compare with her. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. in this passage that i just read to you proverbs 8 10-12 we find the eternal value of god’s wealth which is ours for the taking you know you’ve seen many people long for wealth and believe it’s the key to happiness i see people buying lottery tickets and sometimes i’ll even buy a lottery ticket Not because I desire to be wealthy, but because my wife gets a kick out of getting a lottery ticket and seeing what she won. And we never win anything like you. We never win grits. But people long for wealth. television shows about homes that people are buying because they won the scratch-off lottery and we got wealthy. Elvis Presley was once asked this question, said, are you happy with all your riches and with all your fame? And you know what he said? He said, no, I’m actually very lonely. The great John D. Rockefeller was asked the same question to which he replied, I have made millions, but they brought me no happiness. Clearly, you and I can understand monetary wealth is not the key to happiness because many people today live with no satisfaction and no fulfillment. Much of their activity is to deaden the pain of the empty life that they have. And that’s a shame, but that’s the truth. That’s what happens a lot of times. And so they spend money they don’t have to buy things they don’t need to impress people they actually don’t even like. Our Lord Jesus Christ made it very clear when he said, happiness belongs to those people who hear my father’s word and keep it. Luke 1128. So what I can offer you today is the truth about real wealth and real happiness. I can tell you the truth, not some gimmick, not some game. I’m not telling you that if you win a million dollars, you’re going to be happy. In Proverbs 8, 10 through 12, we find wisdom speaking to us saying that her instructions and her knowledge are better than silver, better than gold, and better than precious jewels. How in the world could divine wisdom be better than monetary wealth? Does that even compute to you? Does that even make sense to you? The answer is found in verse 12 of Proverbs chapter 8. Because I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. Looking at the Hebrew text, we find the word prudence. It’s an interesting Hebrew word. It’s called ormah. O-R-M-A-H is the way it’s spelled, ormah. And it’s a feminine noun, meaning the ability to be shrewd or to be very crafty. I mean, you remember that old Kenny Rogers song about the gambler, you got to know when to hold him and know when to fold him. Remember that? Being very shrewd and very crafty. That’s what it means. When a believer such as you or me, when we learn and we apply God’s word or Bible doctrine into our life, then we stop being irrational and we stop being controlled by our emotions. That’s what gets us in trouble. And we develop a new way of thinking called divine viewpoint. And that includes you having prudence. That’s why I read this passage to you while ago before we even started about the human IQ and divine IQ and how the problem-solving devices give you this phenomenal spiritual x-ray vision. And that includes prudence. When you have spiritual x-ray vision, When you can see past the schemes and the plans of Satan and the world and the lure of the world, then you can be extremely wealthy because you won’t destroy yourself and destroy other people in part of it. I mean, I know people that have made a lot of money illegally and destroyed themselves and destroyed other people in the process. Solomon said when he wrote these verses in Proverbs 1, 4 that his intention was to do something. When he wrote those verses that I just read to you in Proverbs 8, he said this. He said in 1, 4 that my intention is to give prudence to the simple. And to the young man, knowledge and discretion. Prudence, knowledge, and discretion. The wealth of God’s wisdom is tremendous. I can’t even begin to tell you how tremendous it is. That’s why I call it spiritual x-ray vision. It’s the ability to maneuver through this life without falling into the pit holes of failure and frustration. Can you imagine living a life without failure and frustration? Can you imagine living a life without being duped by the devil into thinking that money or sex or love is the key to happiness when it’s not? When it’s not. Jesus said, happiness belongs to people who hear my father’s word and keep it. Wealthy people are not people that have a lot of money. Maybe so in the world’s view. But the real wealth that I’m talking about is the internal wealth of soul, the richness of thinking with wisdom, insight, and discernment, having discretion, having prudence. It’s tremendous. The next Hebrew word in that passage that we were just looking at, back up just a minute in this so I can get this verse for you right here. The next word was understanding. That was the one we wanted to look at here in that passage. Hang on just a second. Here we go. Wisdom dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion, understanding. So the word knowledge is the Hebrew word knowledge. And knowledge is the Hebrew word da’ath, which means to have discernment, to have understanding, and to have wisdom. So again, take my instruction and not silver. And knowledge, rather than the choicest gold… For wisdom is better than jewels, and all desirable things cannot comprehend with her. I, and this is wisdom speaking, I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion. Knowledge, the Hebrew word da’ath, which means discernment, understanding, and wisdom. In the Greek New Testament, we find two words for knowledge, and it’s very interesting. The word knowledge is pronounced gnosis, G-N-O-S-I-S in the Greek New Testament. But there is another word that is often used and it’s not the word gnosis. It’s a prepositional phrase in front of it called epi-gnosis. And that’s spelled E-P-I-G-N-O-S-I-S. And there’s a difference between gnosis and epinosis. You see, gnosis is information that you heard, that you understood. Maybe you went to church, maybe you took a piece of paper, maybe the pastor passed out his notes. and you wrote down a few things and you heard it and you understood it and you left there fairly clearly understanding what he taught you, but you don’t apply it. You see, epinosis is the word of God applied. It’s full knowledge, epi being full and gnosis being knowledge. So there’s a difference between hearing and keeping the word of God. That’s why the Lord Jesus Christ said in Luke 11, 28, happiness belongs to those who hear and keep my father’s word. When you have epinosis, epinosis, you only get it one way. You get it by faith. You hear what the pastor teaches. And now you have to be faithful to live what he taught you. You believe it and you apply it. That’s called you being faithful. And when you have that sort of fidelity in your life, then God begins to bless you in ways you cannot believe. Not that he makes you wealthy, no, but he sure gives you tremendous opportunity, tremendous insight. tremendous impact in the devil’s world so to have that sort of knowledge and that’s what God said in Jeremiah 9 I want people to know me and understand me the greatest wealth there is is understanding God and knowing God through his son Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior it’s one thing to know the Bible it’s another thing to obey the Bible and to apply the knowledge which we learn that then turns into wisdom Insight and understanding wrapped in prudence and discretion. What is wisdom? It’s insight and understanding wrapped in prudence and discretion. Again, let me say it the third time. It’s like a bombing run with a plane. I flew over and dropped the bomb, turned around, came back and dropped the bomb. Now I’m coming for the third run. Listen. When you take that knowledge of the Word of God and believe it and apply it, then it turns into wisdom. And wisdom is simply this. It’s insight and understanding wrapped in prudence and discretion. Now, you’re not going to get any knowledge if you’re not listening to the teaching of the Word of God, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If you’re not assembling under a well-qualified pastor, if you’re not learning consistently God’s Word, you’re not going to get any knowledge. And I’m going to tell you right up front, I’m going to be as honest with you as I can be. If you think going to church on Wednesday night for 30 minutes and going to church on Sunday morning for an hour is gonna make you a mature believer, you are mistaken. You are dead wrong. You’ve been a Christian a long time now and you oughta know more than that. If you went to the first grade and you went for 30 minutes on one day and 30 minutes on another day and 30 minutes on another day, that’s an hour and a half. How many years would it take you to get out of the first grade? Well, if you compare that to church, 30 minutes Wednesday, 30 minutes Sunday morning, another 30 minutes Sunday morning, hour and a half, how long is it gonna take you to graduate to be a mature believer? Until you come to the place where you hunger for God’s Word, until you come to the place where you’re willing to sit down and listen to a well-qualified pastor teach you the Bible on a daily basis, You’re going to have a hard time ever reaching spiritual maturity before you check out of this planet. You’re going to have a hard time ever getting any real epinosis because you’re going to be distracted. You’re not going to be able to cut it. You’re not going to be able to handle it. And when you get to the judgment seat of Christ, you’re going to be very surprised because you’re not going to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant. I don’t know what you’re going to hear. I know what I don’t want to hear myself. I don’t want to hear the Lord say, why did you goof around so much, you idiot? Why didn’t you pay attention to what I told you? Why didn’t you get with the program instead of just being lazy and running off and doing everything in the world except what you should have been doing? It’s one thing to know the Bible, and it’s another thing to apply the Bible. So this is critical. The third word that we want to take a look at here in this passage, I wisdom dwell with prudence and knowledge and discretion. The word discretion here in this passage is the Hebrew word mezema, mezema. The word discretion is mezema, M-E-Z-I-M-M-A, mezema. And that discretion is the ability to apply judgment and to decide how to handle any situation that you’re confronted with. It’s the ability to act using prudence and full knowledge of God’s word. Those people who have a position of power are most often able to exercise discretion. and hopefully how they will apply or exercise that power that they have but without these traits or character the new testament christian will seldom even know how to pray or how to apply impersonal love i mean do you know how to pray if i told you today that you could pray for one thing if you could ask god to give you one thing If I gave you a free ticket and said, here it is, now you can take this to heaven, and you can say, God, I want you to give me this, and he would do it for you, what exactly would you ask for? That’s a fair question. I want you to listen. I want you to listen to what Solomon did. I want you to listen to Solomon’s prayer for wisdom. And he knew what to ask for. In 1 Kings 3, 5 through 14, in Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night and God said, ask what you wish me and I’ll give it to you. There it is right there. So what would you ask for? Remember now, Solomon’s father was David, and now he was the king. He had tremendous responsibility for national leadership. And this is what Solomon said to our heavenly father. Solomon said, you have shown great loving kindness to your servant David, my father, according as he walked before you in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart towards you. And you have reserved for him this great loving kindness that you’ve given him a son, that’s Solomon, to sit on his throne as it is this day. So now, O Lord, my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. And yet I am but a little child. and I do not know how to go out or come in. Your servant is in the midst of your people, which you have chosen. And it’s a great people, way too many people to be numbered or counted. So please give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours? Wow. What did he ask for? He asked for what? He asked for an understanding heart to judge the people of God so he would be able to discern between good and evil. What a request. He didn’t ask for money. He didn’t ask for fame. He had tremendous humility when he said, I am but a child and I don’t know how to go out or come in. Next time you pray, try saying that. Father, I’m but a child and I need your advice. I need your wisdom. I need your word. And God said, okay, pick up your Bible. There it is. Everything I want you to have is written in that book right there. It’s all there for you. And I have qualified men who have the gift of pastor teacher. I’ve put them in pulpits and they are there to teach you my word. In Hebrews 5, 11 through 14, here’s something about that good and evil because this is what he asked. Excuse me just one minute, I had to take a drink. Solomon asked, give me the ability to discern between good and evil. In Hebrews 5, 11 through 14, the writer of Hebrews said, concerning him we have much to say and it’s hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you’ve come to need milk, not solid food. Because everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness. He’s just a baby. But solid food is for the mature who, because of their practice of have their senses trained to understand the difference between good and the difference between evil. What does Solomon say? Again, your people to discern between good and evil. Here it is again, to discern between good and evil, Hebrews 5, 11 through 14. Now you may think evil is bad stuff and good is good stuff, but that’s not it at all. The good we’re talking about is God’s grace plan. For example, in salvation, for by grace, are you saved through faith it’s a gift of god not of works that someone should boast about it evil is it when satan takes the word of god and distorts it organized religion is the most evil thing in the world because organized religion will tell you you can go to heaven by being good organized religion will tell you you can go to heaven if you don’t drink if you don’t smoke if you don’t cheat on your taxes and you’re faithful to your wife then you’re going to go to heaven. And that is not true. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his grace, he saved us. It’s very clear in the Bible. Many Americans, Christians cannot discern between good and evil. Many Christians are blinded by socialism, humanism, and even progressive thinking. And now, As we watch, they’re willing to bow down to social demands in order to be accepted and not persecuted. I see their thinking and I wonder why they cannot see the evil they are facing and they can’t see how they’re being manipulated or what I call drinking the Kool-Aid. So what is good and what is evil? Good is the word of God. Evil is the word of God twisted. It’s Satan’s genius. It’s Satan’s policy. God’s policy is grace. Satan’s policy is works. The genius of Satan can trick you just like he did Eve in the garden. And you can be a victim of that if you’re not very careful. So it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon asked for these things. And God said to him, because you asked for this, and you didn’t ask for a long life, you didn’t ask for riches, you didn’t ask for me to kill your enemies, but you’ve asked yourself to have discernment, to understand justice, I will do according to the words that you’ve requested. I have given you a wise and discerning heart so that there be no one like you. Before you or after you, and I’ve also given you what you have not asked for, which is riches, honor, so that there will never be any among the kings like you all of your days. And then it winds up by telling him this. Listen to this warning. And this should be your warning and mine as well. If you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments as your father David did, then I will prolong your days. And here’s the secret to having a long life. If you walk in my ways and obey my statues and commandments, how to have a long life. Children obey your parents and the Lord. This is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise. So it may be well with you and you may live a long time on this earth or in the Bible and Proverbs. My son, forget not my laws, but let your heart keep my mandate. So you can have length of days and a long life in peace. It’s all right there. This is what God has designed for you. This is the wealth and the wisdom of Bible doctrine. Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. The fear of the Lord adds length to life and years to the wicked are cut short. So what good does it do you to be rich if you don’t live long enough to enjoy it? The secret to God’s blessing of length of years is to have humility and obedience and listen to the call of wisdom. That’s all I can offer you, wisdom. Are you listening? Are you paying attention? It is my prayer that you are and that you will respond to what I’ve said today. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
