S. 2 E. 2 The Recipe for Wisdom: Finding Your Identity, Your Mission, and Your Next Move

Welcome back to Built for Confidence, the podcast where I helping kingdom builders like you rebuild identity, sharpen clarity, and lead with conviction. I am your host, Coach Paul Ybarra, and I am so glad you’re joining me as we go deeper in God together.

This month, we are breaking down the Book of Proverbs, and today we are diving straight into Proverbs Chapter 2 to talk about the value of wisdom. I don’t want this to just be white noise in your background; I want you to tap into what God has for your life and your business.

Here are the key takeaways from our deep dive into the first few verses of Proverbs 2:

• The Recipe for Wisdom: I shared that wisdom isn't just something that happens; there is a recipe to follow. If you receive God's words, treasure His commands, and incline your ear—meaning you are intentionally listening and pointing your focus upward—you will find the knowledge of God.
• The Word is Your Map: Just like in the movies where people fight for a treasure map, we have the ultimate roadmap in the Word of God. While people love to argue over theology and Greek translations, I’m a geek for that stuff too, but remember: no amount of theology will ever change the personal experience I’ve had with Jesus Christ.
• Understanding the "Then": In verse 9, the Bible says "Then you will understand." This is the result of doing the work in the previous verses. When you follow God's recipe, you gain three specific things: 
  • Righteousness (Identity): Understanding who you are in Him.
  • Justice (What to Do): Gaining clarity on the actions and outcomes you need to pursue.
  • Equity (Decision-Making): Learning how to make moral, solid decisions in your business and life.
• A Good Path for Your Business: God wants you on a good path in your church and your business. True confidence comes from knowing your value is found in Him, not in the frameworks or labels people try to place on you.
• Pause and Listen: As business owners, we have to pause and listen—not for what we want to hear, but for how God’s wisdom actually applies to our lives. Remember, the confidence you need is already built in on the inside of you.

Let’s Connect! My passion is helping business owners grow, scale, and expand for the Kingdom of God. If you want me to come and speak to your team, church, or ministry, reach out to me at coachpaulybarra@gmail.com.

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Transcript

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Welcome to Build for Confidence, the podcast where kingdom builders rebuild identity, sharpen clarity, and lead with conviction. I am your host, Coach Paul Ibarra, and every week we're cutting through the noise to help you stop second guessing, start deciding, and build with confidence right where God has placed you. So listen, drop a review, drop a comment, hit that like, subscribe, all the things, and let's get started. I am Coach Polly Barr, your host here on Built for Confidence Podcast. Thank you so much, not only for supporting me through this podcast, but also going deeper in God. So, like I said, this entire month of April, we're going to be breaking down the proverbs. And it's been a good time for me because it's taken me deeper. And my desire, my heart's desire for you is that you would go deeper as well and allow God to speak to you in whatever area of your life in wisdom, knowledge, discernment, all the things that we need to be able to function as kingdom individuals. I pray that today, tomorrow, and the rest of this month is taking you deeper and not just something to listen to as white noise in the background, but really tapping into what God has for your life. We're going to get started this morning. We're diving into Proverbs chapter two, and this is all about the value of wisdom. And it says, My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understand. Yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the paths of justice and preserves the way of his saints. Now here's where we're going to land today. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity, and every good path. Whenever we see this, and this is elementary, then you will. That means everything leading up to it is giving you the recipe of what you will do. So before we land on verse nine, I want to take us back to verse four, and it says, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures. In movies, we see that when they're looking for a treasure, first there's a map. A map that's been discovered. There's a map that's been fought for. There's a map that people have died for. It's a roadmap to the treasure that's valuable. Guess what? If you're watching a video, you see this here, this book, this is the map. This is the recipe. This is the thing that so many people are fighting over this day and age. Well, it was written this way, and it was canonized this way, and the the Greek took this out, and you gotta read it in order, and this and that. And I get that. I'm a geek when it comes to that stuff. I'm a geek when it comes to Hebrew context. However, the truth remains this no amount of theology will ever change the experience that I've had with Jesus Christ. Not one, not one whatsoever will ever change my experience. So when I look at the arguments that are going back and forth, people are fighting for this hidden treasure. It's like sometimes the way to go deep is really look at the surface. The surface of this verse right here, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, the simplest way to break this down for us in a book is to say, hmm, hidden treasures. What are the hidden treasures and where do they come from? They come from the word of God. It's that simple. But sometimes we as business owners, we have to pause and we have to listen, and we have to do it in a way that it's not listening for what we want to hear, but diving in deeper, saying, How is this going to apply to my life? And that's how built for confidence comes alive in your life. Because remember, the confidence is already built in on the inside of you. So as you're moving and shaking and doing the things that you're doing for your business, I want you to remember this that God has his plans and his purposes that are deeper than what you could ever think or imagine. We're gonna go on over to verse nine. Because 10 through 22 is talking about when wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you, understanding will keep you to deliver you from. And it's all these different areas. Go and read it for yourself. But here's where God had me focus this morning as I was putting this together. Verse 9 says, Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. When I began to break that down, I looked at equity and I'm like, what is what does equity mean in the Hebrew? It's doing things in a moral way. And so the Hebrew word is mesherim. I think I'm pronouncing that right. So then it's like, okay, so then you will understand righteousness. And it's like, how do you understand being right? Well, what it really means is then you will understand your identity of who you are. Then you will understand because when you understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God, all of the things, now we know who we are. When we look at justice, it's really what to do. Because when you're seeking justice in a court of law, the justice is okay, here's what we're gonna do. This is the outcome between the two arguments. And the equity is decision making. So let's break that down. Then you will understand your identity of who you are, and justice, what to do, equity, the decisions to make because of those first two, every good path. Now I left the word and out because when it's italicized, that means man added that extra. So let's read it again. Then you will understand identity, your righteousness, who you are, and justice, what to do, in decision making, every good path. Now, every good path is simply because when you go back to the beginning of chapter two, it says, If you receive my words and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom. What does it mean to incline? When you're on a treadmill and you have to do an incline run or incline walk, or you're on an incline, it's pointing up. So what is it saying? So that you incline, you raise your ear, you are intentionally listening to what God is saying to your heart, so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understand. Once you do all of these applications all the way up to verse eight, then you will understand you who you are, what to do, and the decisions of every good path. Because God wants you on a good path. You're on a good path this morning. You are on a good path in your church, you're on a good path in your business. And so when we seek out his wisdom and his understanding and we're digging them out like treasures, guess what? It's something of value. And this is where God wants you to be a place of value. He wants you to understand your value in him. He wants you to understand that the value that you carry is all about him. It's the value, not the value that people have placed on you, not the value that your frameworks have placed upon you, but the value of who you are, what to do in your decision making so that you can be the leader that God has called you to. So, once again, my call to action for you today is this if you need a speaker to come and speak to your team, to your business, to your church, to your ministry, reach out to me. Head on over to my email, coachpawebara at gmail.com, and I'll get with you. Let's connect. With that being said, I love you guys. God bless you. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Built for Confidence podcast. And we'll catch you on day three. And also let me know which episode has touched your life. My passion is to help business owners grow, scale, and expand for the kingdom of God. So let's get out there, let's build our businesses, share this style, hit that like, all the things, and we'll catch you on our next episode. God bless.