Strength In Weakness

You can be faithful and still feel like you are breaking. If you are in a season where the pressure is higher than anything you expected, we are speaking encouragement straight into that place with a message that does not sugarcoat the struggle: God often demonstrates His strength most clearly when we feel weak, stretched, and out of options. 

We talk about discipleship as a real-life call into the impossible, where the kingdom of God moves forward by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by our talent or sheer will. Along the way, we get honest about the daily grind of carrying your cross, including those moments when you slip into complaint and negativity. That “whine and cheese party” might feel harmless, but it can quietly block trust, joy, and spiritual growth. 

We also look at the cross of Jesus Christ as the ultimate example of strength in weakness, where apparent defeat becomes resurrection power. From there, we connect the Tower of Babel to modern self-reliance and spiritual counterfeits, and we call out anything that becomes an idol between us and God’s love. The charge is clear and practical: do not quit, submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and trust the One who is faithful to bring you through. 

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find it. What part of your life is God asking you to surrender right now?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

I want to take a moment to share a word of encouragement for some of you who are experiencing some hard times. In fact, you're being stretched to a place that is beyond what you had anticipated previously. I mean, you've gone through some hard times. You've gone through some difficult times, and you realize that during those times, God is perfecting his strength both

Encouragement For Hard Times

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to you and through you. He wants to perfect a demonstration of his strength so that even in the face of weakness, he demonstrates his strength so that ultimately we can look to God and say that he is the one who has accomplished the things that we could not accomplish concerning his kingdom. Because the call into living a life as a disciple of Jesus is a call into living in the impossible. The impossible being made possible, living in and with the kingdom of God at hand. There's something about us going through hard times, harder than what we anticipated. And I'm talking to some seasoned veterans who've gone through some stuff, and yet at this current hour, you're being stretched to a place that is beyond where you've been stretched, where you have been stretched before. How do I know? I'm experiencing that very thing right now, and have been for quite some time, where I'm being broken down, if you will. My flesh, my nature of and by myself, my own tendencies, my nature without God is being weakened daily. In fact, I die daily. I pick up my cross daily and follow Jesus. I mean, some days, right? Some days, to be real with you right now, to be honest with you, some days are better than other days. Meaning some days I really do pick up my cross and I follow Jesus and I go through the days without complaining. And then

Dying Daily And Staying Honest

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there's some other times where I have what my friend Dr. Bill says, I have a wine and cheese party. A lot of whining and I serve some cheese along with it, right? A different type of wine and cheese party. And it's the type that really no one wants to attend because it's negative. And going through difficult times, going through them is the key. Not just to them or in them, but through them. Because it's going through them, it's being pulled through them that we get stripped away, that we have stripped away, we get stripped away from our lives, those things that actually get in the way of God demonstrating his strength. Because he does not need our fallen nature nor our abilities as a human being. He doesn't need them to accomplish things concerning his kingdom. It's his kingdom, and he's called us to participate in it. And in so doing, he takes things that bring about weakness within our life, and he uses them to perfect his strength. The cross of Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of that. Complete human weakness, the human body of Jesus Christ hanging on that cross, nailed to it, and impaled in the end, completely draining him of every

The Cross Shows Real Strength

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ounce of anything that would pertain to life. His blood spilled out completely. Complete weakness. And yet it was in that state of complete weakness that God demonstrated his complete power in revealing the resurrection from the dead. A human body being resurrected eternally from the dead with supernatural powers happening at the speed of thought.

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A person who can change the way they look in order to accomplish things that couldn't be accomplished previously.

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And now with resurrection power, they could be accomplished. And God has called us to participate in his divine nature and to walk in that resurrection power, to have a foretaste of that prior to us experiencing the resurrection. We get to taste the down payment of it when we place our trust and faith in Jesus and allow him to baptize us in his spirit, filling us to overflowing, so that we can express the nature of God out from us. And it's our own human endeavors that sometimes get in the way, and those are the things that are being weakened. Right? God took the Tower of Babel and confused the language because the people were doing things on their own power, and it was going to be cheap substitute in comparison to God, but yet it was impressive enough that the people would settle for it. In fact, be satisfied with something that would reach up to the heavens. Instead of being escorted

Babel, Idols, And God’s Jealous Love

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by the life and power of God, it was by their own efforts, that they would reach the heavens. And God confused their languages and, in essence, brought about a weakness. Because it was not his strength that was being portrayed. It's not as though God is insecure. It's just he doesn't want us to settle for second best. And he will intervene when we have idols that come between us and him. He is angry at the things that come between love. He is angry at the things that come between us experiencing his love and demonstrating our love to him. He comes at those things. He is zealous in judging those things that come between us. It's not his strength that he is insecure about. He's very secure. There is no rival, there is no equal opposite. Satan is not God's equal opposite, he's an enemy, an already defeated foe, and we are called to demonstrate the change of God in the final hours leading up to the soon return of Jesus Christ. We have a job ahead of us, but we can't accomplish it on our own power. It's going to be done in the power of God's Spirit, so that all of these things that transpire can be attributed to God. No one will be confused and say that a man did it or a group of people did it. God is going to be glorified. God is going to receive the ultimate praise, and he alone is worthy of it. And his lifestyle is not second best, it's the highest good. And he's called us to participate in it. But for a time while we're living on earth, we're going to experience times where we are being refined. And in that time, it often feels weak, where we feel weak. And those things that make us feel weak, sometimes we're tempted to complain about those things. To become people that murmur and complain and inwardly start to have resentment toward God instead of offering those things up to God, and in exchange for that weakness, he delivers his power. Hallelujah. And if you're experiencing that now, please don't give up. The one who has called you is faithful to bring you all the way through. Not just up to, not just in, but through. His rod and his staff, they comfort us while they're striking blows against the enemy. And we have been called as a people to once we have been given the opportunity to in our weakness allow God to demonstrate his strength, we begin to see things take place on planet Earth. The signs and wonders of God will flow like a

Removing Barriers To God’s Power

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river flowing out from the throne of God. Signs and wonders are not difficult for God. We're the ones that produce the blockades, the barriers. We throw the stumbling blocks at stones in front, and we try to somehow, because of our own insecurities and our own misunderstandings, we try to do things our own way. And so doing, we put barriers in front of God. Until He, as He's doing right now, is empowering men and women across the nations to remove those stones, those barriers, those demonic influences that are hindering the advancement or attempting to hinder the advancement of the kingdom of God, for them to move. For them to move as a result of the church demonstrating the power of God as we declare the word of God and see the word of God destroy the enemy. Because it's the word of God, the sort of truth, that's going to conquer the lies of the enemy. And he is defeating those lies even now, and he's using the encouragement coming from this podcast episode into your life saying, don't quit. In fact, submit.

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Don't quit. Submit. Submit yourselves to God.

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Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Don’t Quit, Submit, Resist

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He'll flee from you. And we resist him. We submit ourselves to God and resist the devil.

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We resist will submit to God. Resist. Don't quit God. Submit to God. Don't quit following. You haven't made a mistake.

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This is not some sort of thing that is, you know, a real bad dream happening. Or you've involved yourself with something that is just a false hope. The truth of the matter is we're going through things because God wants to use us in a way that we couldn't do on our own, and he's helping us go through things. So we can let go of things that are hindering us in the long run. And he brings it about because he is our deliverer, he delivers us from evil. And he is giving us the ability to walk in the power of his spirit as we submit to him during the times of refining. And my encouragement to you is don't quit. Submit. Submit yourselves to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from you, and you will experience the victory that God has secured for you to demonstrate as he causes his kingdom to advance in the world around you in the name of his son Jesus. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Father, we look to you right now and we honor you as God, as God most high, learning your ways, learning how to live with you, how to speak to you, how to hear from you, relationship with you, God. We love you. And we want to learn to love you more and to receive your love even deeper in their lives. And

Prayer And How To Connect

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in the face of weakness, help us lean on your strength. For it's in our weakness that your strength is made perfect. Your strength is made perfect in weakness, and perfect love casts out all fear. So help us not be afraid of weakness, but to submit ourselves to you, and be wise as we go through life. Being transformed into your image. Standing here, declaring, your kingdom come, your will be done in the earth as it is in heaven, in the mighty name of Jesus. We say amen, amen, amen. Amen. Alright, folks. We love you. And if you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to look us up on Life Around the Fire on the web or type in LifeRoundtheFire at gmail.com. That's our email address. We would love to hear from you, as I said. In the meantime, God bless you. Adios, amigos.