The Resting Place

Finding Christ In Contradictions

• Ben and Logan Robbins • Season 2 • Episode 7

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What if the place you’re trying hardest to avoid—the gap between your limits and your calling—is exactly where God intends to meet you? We step straight into that tension, tracing how revelation often shows up where contradictions collide: hunger and lack, favor and fear, promise and process.

We start with a striking picture from a Colorado trail—bighorn rams slamming together with the force of a car crash—to frame the lived experience of faith. From there, we revisit two blind men who somehow follow Jesus across a threshold they were never “supposed” to cross, reminding us that hunger often outruns propriety. Then we let Paul guide us into the core paradox: “My power is made perfect in weakness.” We contrast polished, strength-forward leadership with the quieter way of boasting in infirmity so the power of Christ rests personally, not just on a room. 


Mary’s encounter with Gabriel reframes what favor looks like. “The Lord is with you” comes with risk, surrender, and an assignment beyond ability. Her yes becomes a model for incarnation today: expose your insufficiency, consent to being overshadowed by the Spirit, and carry what God conceives. We explore why the “five loaves and two fish” pattern still applies—offering what is clearly not enough and watching grace multiply it—and how life itself can tutor us in the supernatural if we stop waiting to feel qualified.

We close with something practical yet profound: joy in distress is born from nearness. Cultivate simple rhythms of union with Jesus—quiet mornings, breath prayers in pressure, courageous yeses in small tasks—and watch courage rise where you expected collapse. If you’ve been waiting to feel strong before you move, this conversation invites you to lead with weakness and discover the strength that meets you on the water.

If this spoke to you, share it with a friend who needs courage today and subscribe to stay up to date with us here at The Resting Place.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hi everyone, I'm Ben.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm Logan, and we're the Robin.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Resting Place podcast. But I have felt some things stirring around the incarnation for some time, and I may just take the rest of this is not set in stone, but I may just take the rest of our gatherings for the rest of the year and do some examining of different angles of the incarnation as we go into 2026 because I believe 2026 is going to be a year of the manifestation of Christ in you, the hope of glory for this company of people. I believe we're going to start to step into some realities. So I've been doing some thinking, and um I really do believe that the manifestation of some of the things that we have been talking about for the last two years, that it's time to start seeing some of that. It's time to start seeing some of the manifestation of the things that I've been seeing for the last couple of years. But it's going to require a couple of things, and one of those things I'm going to talk about today as we get into this. And it's so interesting the way that the Lord works. If you've ever, if you've been walking with the Lord as long as Lou has, you know you're going to face things that are seemingly contradictory in your life. They're going to be contradictory things going on. The Lord is going to do some things in your life that are seemingly contradictory to what you believe he has planned for your life. He's going to take you down some paths that look like they fly in the face of the direction that he's told you you will go. And he's going to require you to walk through the contradiction and find him in that contradiction because he's there. He's there in the contradiction. In the contradictory truth. And I've been saying this for some time now, and it's true. Damon always says, Pop always says, revelation lives in the tension between two seeming contradictory things. That's where revelation lives. Revelation lives in the seeming contradiction of two opposing thoughts. Two contradictory thoughts. There's revelation found there. I believe life is found in the seeming contradiction of two opposing realities that we find come in a head-to-head collision. We went to Colorado last month after our after our second gathering, the the 12th, I believe it was. We that next week we went out to Colorado and we had an incredible time. It was amazing. I've been to Denver once, but it was for a basketball camp, so I'd never got to spend any time in Colorado. And I found out Denver is a trash heap. It is a dirty trash heap, but the but the electric cowboy is amazing. So if you ever go to Denver, Gabe, remember this. If you ever go to Denver, go to the Electric Cowboy. The food is so good. The food is so good. Yeah, that's what it's called, I believe. Atomic, not electric. Strike that from the record forever. Atomic Cowboy. Denver Biscuit Co. inside of the Atomic Cowboy that also has a pizza place in it. I'm curious to try the pizza now because the the Atomic Cowboy was the biscuit thing there was so good. Um I won't go into it, but it was so it was so Logan told me yesterday, I think it might be the best food I ever had. And I was like, oh my. Um so it's one of two that I didn't think are one of the best things we've ever eaten. One of the two best things she can ever remember eating. And it was fire. I'm gonna tell you, it was fire. I don't even like shrimp and grits, and it was fire. It was really good. Um Lance needs to get out the let him cook t-shirt before he goes into the Atomic Cowboy. Um but we went there and we saw when we were there, one of the days, I say that because one of the days we were there, um, we went to Garden of the Gods, our second to last day, and we were it's a really cool area with a ton of walking pads, but there's two things I want to talk about from that. But one is we saw a bighorn sheep. He was just hanging out, hiding. You almost wouldn't see him. I wouldn't have seen him if I didn't see people taking pictures, and I looked over there and I said, Oh my gosh, it's a bighorn sheep. It's a ram over there laying down. He was perfectly camouflaged, but this big old brood of a ram, and I wanted to murder him with my whole heart. I wanted to murder him and put him on my wall right next to my deer right there. The deer is lonely, and I need to have a friend up there for him, and a sheep, a bighorn sheep would have been perfect. But I also would have gone to prison forever because they love their animals in Colorado. So uh there was no murdering. But say that to say, in our lives, if you've ever seen like a nature documentary of Bighorn Rams, when they start to, when they start to fighting and they start to coming to head-to-head-on collisions, they they they butt heads at a pace that is like if you if you were in between them, it probably would kill you. It's like a car crash. They butt heads with the force of a car crash, is what I've heard on nature documentaries. They'll they'll fight each other during rutting season and to for for dominance, and they come head to head in collisions with the force of a with the force of a car crash, and you can hear it from miles away up in the wilderness. And that's what life will do to you sometimes with contradictory realities. Life will find you with contradictory realities that come together with a collision force similar to that, and in the middle of the collision of two seemingly contradictory realities, that's where you find life. And that's where you find the kingdom because Yahweh works in the middle of contradictions. Yahweh works in the middle of contradictions. Well, give me an example of that. Two blind men followed him into a house, followed him for miles, shouting, Son of David, have mercy on me, son of David, have mercy on me, and continued to follow him. How does a blind man follow him? And why wouldn't Jesus just stop and heal the two blind men? But he let two blind men follow him on his journey, shouting all the way, Son of David, have mercy on me. And you have this contradiction of I'm blind, but I'm following. I can't see, but I'm following the one that I can't see. They follow him to the point that it was culturally unacceptable. They follow him past a threshold. They weren't invited past the threshold Jesus walked into, and they followed him into the house, flying in the face of all cultural norms. There, you you would have had to have been invited for this to be acceptable. They were not part of the crew that was invited into the green room. So if it were today, the security guards would have been busting blind men in the head and getting kicking them out of the kicking them out of the green room. And Jesus looks at him and says, What do you want from me? Well, what do you think they want from you, Jesus? They're under what they consider the curse of Yahweh. That's that's what blindness was considered, a curse from Yahweh, to the point that the religious elites would walk past the blind and spit at them. They'd spit on the ground next to them to show their disgust for the blind. This was culturally normal and acceptable. I've even, this is a little bit. I won't say it. I won't say it. I won't say it until I know. Um, I was gonna say something. I've I've had people, never mind. I'm not gonna say, I'm not gonna say it because it's a stumbling block. It's the thing about a stumbling block, and I'm not gonna say it because I have to do a little bit more research. So they would, but I do know they would spit. They would spit next to the blind people. Go either way, spit at them. Just let them know you're under the curse of Yahweh. You're cursed, you're disgusting, you're lower than me, and I'm spitting at you because your parents or you sinned, and that sin has caused you to become blind, and it has caused you to be a blight on the culture of the children of Israel. And I'm going to let you know that you're going to continue to be a blight all the rest of your days until you die, a miserable death, blind and alone. And Jesus lets these miserable people follow him. Follow him, follow him, follow him. And they get past this threshold, and Jesus says, What do you what would you have me do for you? I want to ask him in those moments. Like you know they're blind, right, Jesus? And they're very obviously can't see. It seems very obvious to me what they're wanting from you. Why even ask the question? Why ask the question? They followed you, when the ones that were supposed to receive you wouldn't follow you. It's this interesting. So here's the contradiction. The cursed followed him, while the religious elite refused to. Keep with it a little while. You're gonna find Jesus, and Jesus is going to turn that thing aright. Alright. Second Corinthians 12 and verse 10. We know this passage well. Paul's asking the Lord to remove the thorn in his flesh, and the Lord responds to him, My grace, my grace is all you need, my power works best in weakness. Or I'm gonna read that in the New King James because I'm not I don't love the way that the I don't love the way and that's 12, that's 2 Corinthians 12, 9. I don't love the way that the NLT translates that one. 12 and 9. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, my grace is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, this is Paul speaking, therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, most gladly, therefore, most gladly. This is a contradiction all by itself. Therefore, my strength is made perfect in weakness, therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I'll brag about my weakness. Therefore, I'll shout from the rooftop the places that I'm weak. Therefore, I'll lead in weakness in order that the power of Christ may rest upon me. This flies in the face of every popular leadership teaching that you'll find in the church. Flies in the face. You do not find leaders that are willing to lead with weakness. And as a result, we do not find leaders that have the power of Christ resting upon them. We find men who are great CEOs, we find men who are great at organizational skills, we find men that are good speakers, that are gifted, that are charismatic, that have all of the things working for them. They're well put together, they know how to lead, they know how to put an organization together, but they completely lack the power of Christ resting upon them. And as a result, the church completely lacks the power of Christ resting upon it because we're all trying to put our best foot forward. We're all trying to lead with strength, and Paul's giving us a key to entering into the reality of the power of Christ being made manifest in your person. We talk about the power of Christ almost in an ethereal corporate sense, like the power of God's gonna start moving. This is so contradictory, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecu in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. Let me read through that again. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness, therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I to There's this interesting thing that I got taught in Bible school. When you see the word therefore, you might ought to find out what it's there for. So you read above, right? We read above, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I boast in my weakness, therefore, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me, because of that, I take, because of the fact that I can take pleasure in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I therefore, because of that, take pleasure in my weaknesses, in my sicknesses, and in my infirmities. I take pleasure in the places where I am weak in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses. Watch this, for Christ's sake, the things that I'm suffering for Christ. There's this really unfortunate thing that we find in all of the gospel writers. And furthermore, in every single life that I would consider a hero of mine in the faith, you will not, oh goodness, I don't know if I should say this. Lance wants me to say it. Lance wants me to say it, you will not find a life that is an example of the power of Christ resting upon it without finding suffering for the cause of Christ. You won't. You won't. You can't find it. And we find that tension. So I'm talking about contradictory realities, right? Well, I thought I was more than a conqueror, and I'm all the yeah, okay, yep. Also, you're to boast in your infirmities, you're to be glad when for the cause of Christ you're suffering persecutions, reproaches, being found in need, in distress. When you're in dis in distress, when Paul says in distress, he's not talking about like, hey, somebody cut me off in traffic and it put me in distress. That's me. I get put in distress when people cut me off in traffic. When people cut me off in traffic or don't go fast enough at a green light, I'm in distress immediately when that happens to me. I'm in distress when that happens. Or the Hawkeyes lose, which they always do in important games, and the seas the program is a dumpster fire, and I don't know why I watch those games. Um I'm so uh that that rattled me a little bit because I'm remembering I have PTSD from last night from the Hawkeyes game. Um anytime I go to a grocery store, I get put in distress because I have a sign on my back that says, please bump into me and get in my way and slow down. I love it a lot when you do that. That's on my that's on written across my back and my chest is please bump into me. Please be rude and cut me off in the aisle. Please, please grab things in front of me when I'm going to grab them and also bump into me because I don't like personal space. That's that's that's written across my chest and back anytime I go into public, and people just um they're drawn to me like a magnet, like I enjoy those things. And I I I pray every time I go, I start to pray every time I go in there because I know that I'm about to be put in distress for the cause of Christ, and I need to be strengthened in my spirit, man, to endure the suffering of going into Walmart. Good lord, it's a wasteland in Walmart. I went in there yesterday. It is a wasteland. I don't know if anybody's been into Walmart recently, but it's a wasteland, and people get in your way all the time and they're blocking the aisles, and it's miserable. I had a hard time yesterday, guys. I went to Walmart and then Iowa lost. It was the worst. It was the worst. But we did have Willow's birthday party yesterday, and that was amazing. The shining light of our day was Willow's birthday party. Y'all should have, it was amazing. She was, it's the happiest I've seen her in some, and she's always happy, and it's the happiest. She was like 10 levels above normal happiness, and she's pretty pretty well normally happy. Lucy, you know, she's pretty well normally happy. She was 10 levels above that and like running on running on adrenaline. It was amazing. So all of that said, Paul is giving us the key to the power of Christ working through us. Working through us. The power of Christ working through us. What does that mean? There's a story in Judges. Oh my goodness, I'm gonna get it wrong. He's threshing corn in a thresh never mind, I'm gonna get it wrong. I'm gonna mess up the reference, so I'm not gonna reference it, but the power of God working through you. The power of God working through you, not resting on you, not around you, not being corporately involved in a move of the spirit, but individually in your life, in your everyday circumstances, in your interactions with individuals, in your coming together with people in the culture, the power of God working through you. Requires requires leading with weakness. Laying yourself, it re this is a really good way to say it, laying yourself bare, exposing weaknesses to him and to those around you, knowing you're not qualified to do the thing that he's asking you to do. This is such an interesting thing. The the life of faith is such an interesting thing because there's a tension between being the righteousness of God in Christ and understanding the cosmic level of authority he's given into our keeping and the reality that his strength is made perfect in my weakness. It's this really interesting thing where we're we are required to know who we are. We're required to know that we're his righteousness, we're required to know the level of authority that he has vested in us, the level of authority that he's given to us, the level of grace that he has given to us. We're required to know those things at the same time. We're required to lead with weakness in order that those things might manifest. So what the tent what the what the propensity is in church culture is we start to find out who we are and we start to find out about our righteousness. We start to find out that it's it's we start to find out that it's given to us, that it's God's righteousness given to us. That we now have become his righteousness through Christ, that we're seated with him in heavenly places far above all principality, power, might, and dominion. We're seated far above those things. We're with him in those places, and what we start to do is we start to operate with a bit of a strut, and we can become arrogant very quickly. And cultures that major on the teaching of righteousness, more often than not, have become arrogant in the way that they operate. And in becoming arrogant in the way that they operate, they have a form of godliness that denies the power thereof because you're required to lead with weakness. You're it's not optional. You're required to lead there. So, what Yahweh does, I said this last time we gathered, Yahweh takes his favor, puts it on your life, and then immediately thrusts you into situations that you're not qualified for. He thrusts you into uncomfortable places where your strengths are no good to you, and you must then lean on the weaknesses of your of your personality, the weaknesses of your personality, the weaknesses of character, these places that we need to come into a higher level of maturity. He leads us into places where those things are the things that are required to operate there. And then we lean into, if we're not, if we do this appropriately, we lean into the fact that his strength is made perfect in my weakness, and I'm the exact right person to be here because now that I'm required to use my weakness, his strength can be made evident in a real way. Does that make sense? I'm experiencing this right now in my life, and it's so much fun. It's so much fun right now that I'm experiencing this. I love it with my whole heart. Um it's amazing. I love it. I love it with my whole heart that my weakness is the thing that I'm being required to lead with in every area of my life. Every area. Not qualified for anything I'm doing. Don't have any of the necessary skills, really. No, none of the necessary skills. Um none of the necessary knowledge, none of the necessary experience. And you find yourself in those waters, and what do you do? I'm gonna take that now and apply it to the supernatural realm.

unknown:

Okay?

SPEAKER_00:

What do you do with blindness looking you in the face? Who's qualified to be there? See, what he'll use is he'll use life situations as a tutor to teach you how to operate in the supernatural. That's so good if you'll hear it. That's so good if you'll hear it. He'll use situations in your life to tutor you in the supernatural if you if you'll let him. I just closed the largest the largest customer that the glass company that I work for. I just closed the largest company, the largest customer that the company will have. I just closed them. Not a clue how I did it. Not a clue in the world how I did it. I dropped some I dropped some information off one time. I have worked in sales. Jared, you've worked in sales too before. You do these cold calls and you drop your information off, you never hear from them again. Ever. It's you've wasted a card, it's gonna get thrown away. They'll light it on fire and laugh later about how this stupid salesman came by and thought that we might call him back and they'll they'll start a fire with your card. That's what they do with those things. I'm convinced that's what they do with those things. I've never received a call from the hundreds of cards and hundreds of times I've left information places. I I stop by this place, and within two days they called me back and said, Hey, would you like to come in for a meeting? I said, sure. I would love to, thinking this is a small thing, it's industrial doors, it can't be anything, you know, big. And I start finding out they're the largest manufacturer of industrial doors in the country. They're so large that the decisions they make in their in their industry affect the price of industrial doors across the world. They're their own biggest supplier. No one else could keep up with the demand that they have, so they had to invent a way to become their own supplier in order to maintain the output that they were putting out. They manufacture 17,000 doors a week. It's the wildest thing I've ever seen in my life. Their assembly line is the wildest thing I've ever seen in my life. I was like, holy cow! I'm sitting there, and the more that I'm learning about how big they are while I'm sitting in this meeting, I'm starting to feel I walked in feeling yay tall. Because I'm like, okay, I can handle this. I'm I got this. This is not that big of a customer. I'm okay, we're gonna be fine. And they started telling me of the volume of things that they do and that they're their own biggest supplier because no one else can keep up with their needs, and that they go down the line of all the things. And I started to feel this big, this big, this big, this big. I'm sitting there like, oh my god, what am I doing here? I have what am I gonna tell these people to buy glass from me? They could buy glass. Literally, anyone would love to have this customer. Anyone would. It's the best kind of customer. You don't have to compete with anyone else, they just send in orders. It's the greatest thing ever. There's some headaches that go with it, but it's the greatest thing ever, you know. And unqualified, embarrassingly little knowledge of the product that I'm selling. And we close the deal with them. They start December 1st. And it's I think that's an example of his strength being made perfect in a real way. So we talk about this and it almost becomes like a cliche thing, like, yeah, his strength is made perfect, sure, okay. Okay. And we can talk about the example of Peter stepping out of the boat. And his strength was made perfect in Peter's weakness because Peter can't walk on water. You have to put yourselves in scenarios that your strength is not sufficient for in order to see the level of the glory of the Lord that you were designed for. This is the tension you will find yourself in continually. You are required as a person of faith to put yourself in situations that your strength is not sufficient. And what you will get taught in leadership scenarios, what you'll get taught in taught in leadership seminars, and what you get taught, unfortunately, in the church, is to study hard, become a good Berean, and lead with the places you're strong. Lead with your strength, and don't put yourself at too much risk. And the gospel requires, the gospel requires, I'm gonna say it again. The gospel requires you to put yourself in situations that you have no earthly, I won't even say requires you to put yourself there, the Lord will put you there, the Lord will put you there with his favor, and you'll feel completely unqualified. Completely unable, completely, completely dependent on his strength to carry you to the ultimate result. And that's the most uncomfortable feeling in all the world, I think. At least one of them. Being com especially for the American mindset. And I am, my God, I am American to the bone. I promise you. My alarm clock is the national anthem. It's a joke. It's not. It's not. It's not. Yeah, my ringtone. Oh, say, can you see? I can see. I can. Um that's that's that's right. Um and I struggle. I struggle greatly. It's this interesting thing where faith moves me more than any other subject in the Bible. It just does. That's the way that I'm wired. But I struggle in the area of allowing myself to be put in areas that I don't feel like I'm sufficient for the place that I'm being put in. It's this really uncomfortable thing. And maybe I'm the only one in all the world that loves the subject of faith, but also finds it really uncomfortable when Yahweh then requires me to live the principles that I've been teaching and requires me to be put in scenarios where I'm stepping out of the boat on a constant basis, saying, if I don't, if I sink, I have no way of, I can't swim, and I have no way of walking on this thing that you're asking me to walk on. So I'm going to require that your strength gird me up, like the psalmist says, so that I don't dash my foot on a stone. Okay. I have rambled. I have rambled. Luke one. And I want to just touch on this and then we'll then we'll eat. I promise I'm going to be done in 10 minutes. Luke 1.

unknown:

You're at 31 minutes.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm at 31. I had 12 and a half and I'm at 31.

unknown:

Now we got time to move.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, shut up, Levi. That's that's thank God you did get a kid. That was smart of you. That you knew you knew what the situation was when you got here. I want to see a show of hands. Just show me a show of hands. Who here? And this is a stupid question, but who here has the ability to make the common cold leave by just placing your hand on someone's head and saying, go away and make the cold leave? Who here has is qualified to do something as simple as just dealing with the common cold? Who here is qualified for that? None of us, right? Yeah. No, no, you get some medicine, go go cold compress, get some, get some, get some fruit, juice, something like that. Okay, I ask that because Jesus told us heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, and cast out demons. Those are requirements of faithful Christians. Those are requirements of those faithful to the gospel. It's not an option. It's a requirement to at the very minimal level place yourself at the mercy of the mighty hand of Yahweh to be your strength when you lead with weakness. It is a requirement of the New Testament lifestyle. We don't get the option. We don't get the option. I wish I did. I wish I got the option because you know what I would do? I would find something I was really good at. And that's a really small subset of things that I'm really good at. I might be good at talking about football. Maybe. Maybe. That's like one thing. That's like the one thing I might be good at. I'm not good at many other things. And I'd just do that. I'd lead with that and I'd just let that carry me through the rest of my life. I just, that that would be what we would do, and it would be amazing. And I'd everything would be great because I'd never be put in an uncomfortable situation. But I find myself constantly in uncomfortable situations by the design of Yahweh. By the design of Yahweh. And it is required, it is required of the experience of the New Testament believer to lead with weakness in those scenarios. So this will be the last thing I do. I'll read this and then I'll quit talking to you. And we'll eat. Luke chapter 1 and verse 26. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, Greetings, favored woman. Greetings, favored woman. Gabriel appeared to her and said, Greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. Now, normally, when I think, and I believe the way that it has been presented, I think fairly in our Christian culture, when the Lord's favor is on someone and the Lord is with them, good things are coming. Good things are coming to that person. They're being put in positions of influence. They're being their life is being lifted up, they're being put into positions of prosperity, influence, supernatural power. These are the kinds of things that I think of when I think you're favored and the Lord is with you. My God, it's about to get really, really good. If Gabriel showed up to me and said the Lord is with me, I'd start doing the pull that you guys don't know about it, but pull the lever, money cometh, and just start yelling, money cometh when I pull the lever. That's what I'd start doing immediately because money was coming my way. And the Lord says to Mary, greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. Don't be afraid, Mary, the angel told her, for you have found, watch this, favor with God. You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son. You will name him Jesus. He will be very great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David, and he will reign over Israel forever. His kingdom will never end. Mary asked the angel, but how can this happen? I am a virgin. The angel replied, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, so the baby will so the baby to be born will be holy and will be called the Son of God. What's more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant and in has become pregnant in her old age. People used to say she was barren, but now she's in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible with God. Mary responded, I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true, and the angel left her. A few days later, Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zachariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women. God has blessed you. That's an astounding thing for someone to say. You're blessed more than every woman who has ever lived, Mary. The Pope just came out with a decree from the Vatican that corrected some of the extreme language that the Catholic Church was using surrounding Mary. So there were sects of the Catholic Church that were calling her um co-redemptrix was the title they were giving her. So she was a co-redeemer in the redemption of mankind, which is obviously extreme, but the co the Pope brought correction to that language and said what that will do is we'll take what that will do is it will it will take away from the eminence of Christ and his redemption of the world. You can there are set there are other things you can call Mary without calling her co-redemtrix, essentially is what he said. Don't add that title to her, but she's so revered by billions of people, billions of people in the earth still to this day in the in the Orthodox world and in the Catholic world to the level that even removing co-redemptrics is a great thing, but there's still some other things that they say. I'm like, that that makes me a little uncomfortable, the way that you revere this person. She is absolutely revered above all women. Absolutely. And rightly so. Rightly so. But this is the reality. She said, You are blessed above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored? The mother of my Lord should visit me. When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what he said. You are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what he said. You are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what he said. I can't repeat that one enough. I want to drive that one into my own brain, so I'm going to repeat it again. You are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what he said. You are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what he said. You are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what he said. You're blessed above all women, and your child is blessed, and you are blessed because you believed the Lord would do what he said. Your greetings, favored woman, the Lord is with you. The Lord's with you, Mary. They're gonna want to stone you. You're going to have to conceive something without the necessary ingredients for conceiving. Good luck with that. Just my mind immediately. The Lord comes to me and says, You're going to have to do something that you don't have the ability, the experience, or the necessary wherewithal to do it. And I'm going to manifest it. Okay, good. How do I do that? How do I do that? What do I do in order to position myself to receive the thing that he said that I would receive? You lay your weakness bare before him and allow this is the perfect example. You lay your weakness or your insufficiency bare before the Lord and allow his power to overshadow you. That's how you do it. This is the necessary starting block for kingdom living in the American church. The necessary starting block is laying weakness bare before the Lord and allowing his power to overshadow you and bring you into the place that he promised you he would take you because you will get there no other way. You might be able to compromise and find something close enough. I feel like that should be the mantra of the American church. We'll compromise and will find something close enough. That should be the mantra. I'm not talking about Baptist, I'm not talking about Calvinists, I'm not. I could rail about that stuff all day long. All day long I could rail about that stuff, and I'm not going to. I'm talking about spirit-filled, charismatic believers. We'll compromise until we find something close enough to what he said. I will compromise. Let me do it this way so it's not offensive. I will compromise until I find something close enough, and I'll settle for that because I didn't have the ability to lay my weakness bare before him. And in the most uncomfortable, weak position I could ever find myself, say, I am required to sit here while this tidal wave of insufficiency is about to swallow me and say, You're gonna have to do it because I don't have the ability to, and watch his strong hand elevate me to the place that he promised me I would go. I said, Life will train you in the way of the supernatural if you'll let it. Life will train you in the way of the supernatural if you let it. You'll be put in situations you don't have the ability to win and you'll win. You'll be put in situations you don't have the ability to find favor and you'll find favor for no reason. Because his strength is being made perfect in your weakness. But you'll be required to lead with insufficiency. You'll be required to lead with weakness. You'll be required to lead with, watch this, humility. I'll be required to lead with humility. I'll be required to lead with weakness. I'll be required, and I'm currently being required in every area of my life, and it's the worst thing in the whole world, and it's awesome all at once. It's terrible and it's awesome. It's the great and terri it's it's the great and terrible day of the Lord, right? As long as we are ourselves, as long as we ourselves are real, as long as we are truly ourselves, God can be present and do something with us. It's this interesting tension of we're the redeemed, we're the heirs of Christ, we're the He's the firstborn among many brethren, we're seated in Him, we're in Pericuresis, we're in union with Him, we're His beloved, we're His righteousness in Christ, we're the bride of Christ. We've been given cosmic levels of authority. All those things are true. And at the same time, he requires that we lead with weakness in order that his strength may be made perfect. But the moment we try to be what we are not, there's nothing left to say or have, we become a fictitious personality, an unreal presence, and this unreal presence cannot be approached by God. It's this interesting tension, and I don't know that I have nearly a developed developed enough thought process surrounding this, but it's this interesting tension of knowing who we are. True humility is agreement with God's perspective of who you are, right? So walking in agreement with God's perspective is walking in humility, and by God's perspective, I've just named off a lot of the things that we are, and those are incredible, those are mighty, those are full of, those are full of, those are full of, you know, the word that comes to mind is like immanence, it's royalty. That's what Yahweh has vested in us, really, is royalty. And at the same time, we have the apostle Paul shouting to the Corinthian church who needed to hear this. Who needed to hear this? Because if you read the history of the Corinthian church, there were some things that were going on in Corinth that needed to be corrected. And Paul said, hey guys, I boast in infirmity. I boast in distress. Um I I take these things joyfully. Here's why. So that the power of God can work through me. And there's this interesting tension of being able to know that this scenario or this situation that I find myself in is not the will of God for my life. This, so I'll say it this way: this poverty I find myself in, it's not the will of God for me to be stricken with poverty the rest of my life. It's not. It's not. However, however, you can find his power there. And I don't have, probably again, I don't have a well-developed enough thought concerning this, and I may talk about it a little more next week, we'll see. But in the mystery of the collision of contradictory truths, he requires that we lead with weakness, and in leading with weakness, his power is able to manifest itself in your real life, in your everyday felt life. He's able to manifest his power by you leaning into, leading where you're not strong. Laying that out there for him and offering him what you have. It's the five, it's the five loaves and three fish. Or five fish and three loaves. However many it was. Two fish, two fish, and five loaves. There we go. I was math was never a strong point for me. I was really close. That was a round average. It's a round average, is what it is. Offering him what you have, knowing it's not enough. And what'll happen is you'll be reasoned and given advice to by those that are well-meaning to stay away from the, hey, I'm gonna try to do this, but I don't have nearly enough to do this. I'm not qualified for this. I'm not qualified for this. I don't know. I just have my life to offer him, and I'm gonna, I believe he's I believe God's leading me to do this, and the Lord will put you in those scenarios and hear well-meaning advice. Hey, don't do that. Wisdom would indicate don't do that. They'll try to give you sound advice and say, hey, don't do this. Don't maybe don't, maybe, maybe avoid this. And you can fill in the blank in almost any given scenario that you'll find this in, but that it happens almost daily. Almost daily, where the Lord requires me to just offer him my five loaves and two fish. And what'll happen if you're not careful is you'll just completely avoid offering anything at all because you know what you have isn't enough. Because you know what I have is not enough. What I have is not enough, so I'm not gonna offer it at all. That's sadly, that's like kind of my go-to when I'm not good at something. I'm like, I'm not even gonna bother. I'm terrible at it. Why would I bother at this? I stink at it, I don't want to do this, this is not my thing, I don't want to do it. And the Lord will require you offering five loaves and two fish where you're insufficient, and what he'll do is he'll use his power to cause you to do things you never thought you'd see. The life of faith requires it. The New Testament, the life of the New Testament believer requires it. It's three twenty. I've gone way longer than twelve minutes. The life of the New Testament believer requires it. It does. Paul said a word that was really interesting. Read it one more. Read it one more time. Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, and persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I take pleasure. Therefore, most gladly. Therefore, most gladly. I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and in reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. I take pleasure in those things. I find joy in those things. You're going to have to go through those things. You're going to have to go through those things, and the key to enduring those things is joy in the middle of those things. How do we do that? And I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. I'm done talking about it. How do we do that? I believe in the middle of all of those things, the key to having joy and living a life of joy is this is going to be very simple. It's nothing profound. It is the presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit resting on you. It is pericuresis, union, finding him in the cool of the day, and resting in his presence in the middle of the contradiction and finding his nearness in the middle of all those things. Finding his nearness in the middle of, I know I'm about to offer up five loaves and two fish, and this is not nearly sufficient enough. But if you can find him in the middle of it, it'll do two things to you. It'll infuse you with courage and it'll give your heart joy.