Why Spiritual Growth Starts Where Comfort Ends

Discomfort gets a bad reputation, but what if it’s actually God’s classroom? We dig into a line that stops you in your tracks: the place of discomfort is the place of learning. When we stay comfortable, we often stay the same and comfort can quietly turn into complacency. So we ask the question most of us dodge: are we pursuing spiritual growth, or just protecting our comfort zone? 

We also get honest about how modern church culture can accidentally reward what feels good over what forms us. Repentance is more than sorry feelings; it’s a real turn, an about-face that costs something. Yes, God is loving, but He’s not soft, and discipleship includes crucifying the flesh, humbling ourselves, and letting the Holy Spirit examine what we’d rather keep hidden. That’s where character gets built, especially in the wilderness season, the process that prepares you for blessings without letting them ruin you. 

Along the way, we share what obedience can look like in real life, including the moment you ask, “Lord, is this of you?” and all you hear is crickets. We talk about honesty that exposes a nerve, truth that brings freedom, and how to embrace unfamiliar steps when God is leading. 

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Transcript

Welcome And The Core Quote

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Hey everybody, welcome to another Woe Folio Short. This is C Dub. I was listening to a highly educated guy, Jewish guy, studies various religions, mystical traditions, history, religious text throughout the ages.

Discomfort Is Where Learning Happens

SPEAKER_00 0:32

And I heard him say a statement, and I go, boy, very, very true. He said, the place of discomfort is the place of learning. Why? Because if we're comfortable, we're usually not learning. If we're comfortable, we're being comfortable with a lot of times comfort leads to complacency. One of the things that really stood out is given my background of how I was raised, you know, a lot of times you'll hear me talk about being raised Catholic until I was about 16, and then going Protestant, actually back to Catholic and back to Protestant. One of the things that a lot of times you will hear the Catholics talk about is Catholic guilt. And very real thing, you're wondering what you did wrong, even if you didn't do anything wrong. And although that can be misplaced, it definitely can. One of the other things I think on the other end of the spectrum is when we seek comfort rather than learning to crucify the flesh, rather than learning to humble ourselves so that we might be exalted. So we let the Lord do the exalting. When it comes to putting ourselves aside and learning to submit our will to God's, when it turns into comfort and good feelings all the time, and this is what the anointing is all

Comfort-First Church And Soft Repentance

SPEAKER_00 2:19

about. This is what church is all about. When we can modify our messages, when we can modify our programs, we can modify how things are done in our local church so that it's meant to attract more people, even if it's from other bodies of believers. And it's meant to make them feel good rather than ask hard questions, rather than lead to sincere repentance. And repentance isn't just sorry feelings, uh, but there has to be a turning. And if there has to be a turning, then you have to turn from something and you have to turn toward something else. It's an about face. But where we have this idea of Jesus saying, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Well, he didn't mean give this up. He didn't mean give that up. He didn't mean put your ego to death. He didn't mean that. He wants you to feel loved and special. Well, yes, he does. But he also needs you to crucify that flesh. He also is going to have you do things which are going to be uncomfortable.

Blessings Need Process And Character

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Everybody wants the blessings. Nobody wants the process. And what we have done a very bad job of doing in the modern church in the last 50 years is explaining the process which builds the character so you can have the blessings and not have them ruin you. You have to have the character. And a lot of times what we don't understand is God is building the character. And the character, the reason the wilderness is so important is the character is the place or the wilderness that discomfort that that professor was talking about, that discomfort is the place of learning. There has to be a moment where you realize that God is God and you are not. If you're willing to get uncomfortable, if you're willing to let Scripture, if you're willing to let the Holy Spirit examine you, if you're willing to take an honest look within yourself, then the process can

A Personal Crash Course In Obedience

SPEAKER_00 5:24

begin. And if you're willing to let the Lord clean you out, and if you're willing to let the Lord develop in you what he sees in you, when the Lord really started calling the calling me and bones back up, you know, there wasn't a lot of time to process. You're either going to do this or you ain't. Oh, he's a loving God. Yes, he is. But God ain't soft. When the Holy Spirit called me back up and said, Are you gonna do this? I'm like, well, yeah. Am I gonna like it? Probably not. And I'm not gonna complain to you about it, but you know I won't like parts of this. But I love you, Lord, and I'll do it. So it was a crash course in obedience. Because a lot of things had to change. What surprised me is a lot of the things I thought were going to have to change were not the things that changed. I just had a totally wrong mindset about a lot of things. And one of the things that one of the things that wilderness process revealed to me is the very fact that my mindset and what I thought previously, um I almost had to get unusable to my previous mindset to be usable to God. And so if any of y'all are, well, I can never I can never be used in ministry because of this, and or I did this back in the day, and I I watched this, or I did this, and well, you'd be surprised a little bit of obedience to the Lord would clean that stuff up really quick. It will.

Honesty And Truth Unlock Freedom

SPEAKER_00 7:07

You gotta be honest. And and that's that's the one thing a lot of times we're afraid of is being honest. But that honesty is a place of discomfort. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. But you gotta get truthful. And that bare nerve that gets exposed with the honesty, that's a place of discomfort. But because it's a place of discomfort, it's a place of learning. Now, does that mean we should go creating our own problems? That is not what that means. But it does mean that when the Lord says go into some place and you don't feel comfortable doing it, you still have to be obedient. Because you're gonna find out that if the Lord has called you to do something, even if you don't think, if you don't think there's no way in the world that that you could do it, you might be right if it's you by yourself, but you're gonna find out that God sees a lot more in you than you're seeing. And if God's seeing that, guess what? He sees better than we do.

Asking God And Hearing Crickets

SPEAKER_00 8:12

So I'd like to challenge you. Just ask the Lord to lead you into some uncomfortable places. Uh be willing to love the Lord into an area of discomfort so that you can learn. Learn to embrace things that are unfamiliar. Learn to embrace uh things that are beyond your norm, as long as they're from the Lord. And guess what? You can ask him, Lord, is this of you? And he'll let you know one way or another. Um, he might even let you know, like a couple times happened with me. Lord, is this you? Crickets. So you know what that means? Shut up and go with it, because if I told you now, you would mess it up. All right, got it. Been there, done that. I I know what I know what the crickets mean now. Took me a minute. But ask him. You know, Lord, is this of you? And if it is, go with it. Be willing to learn. Be will because when you learn, you grow. And it's not just all head knowledge. This is experiential knowledge through relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Apostles’ Cost And The Payoff

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Read what happened to the 12 apostles. I mean, you should already know what happened to at least one. Um, but minus Judas Iscariot. All of them except John are martyred. Willingly. It cost them something. But guess what? Twenty-four elders. You know, you got twelve elders of Israel, you got twelve apostles of the Lamb. There is a huge reward. There is a huge payoff. There is a huge amount of success that can happen spiritually, that can happen relationally, might even happen materially for some of you all. If you are willing to get uncomfortable, and if you are willing to let the Lord lead you into those uncomfortable areas so that you can grow.

Final Challenge And How To Subscribe

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Wofoyo. Everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at woefo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or even check us out on YouTube. For Bones and Myself, this is C Dub, reminding you that if you're going to grow, you got a Woefo Yo. Get in the word for yourself.