THE GREAT AWEAKENING

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 NKJV

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for 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 take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Matthew 23:25 NKJV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

Matthew 16:24 NKJV

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Matthew 23:12 NKJV

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Tom Bennardo writes: “The disease of self is never eradicated this side of heaven; it can be only brought into remission. To discontinue treatment is to risk recurrence. The cancer is prone to return with ferocious vengeance, metastasizing in ways that destroy the carrier. When God maintains treatments that unceasingly weaken his servants, he isn’t showing himself to be a sadist; he is mercifully shielding them from their own poisons.”

A.W. Tozer: “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”

Job 30:20 NIV

“I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.

Jon Bloom “God’s silence is how it feels, it’s not how it is,”

Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams: “God’s restraint has a purpose. When He appears to be doing nothing, He is doing something we’ve not yet learned to value and therefore cannot see. Only in the agony of His absence, both in the real absence of certain blessings and in the felt absence of His Presence, will we relax our determined grasp of our empty selves enough to appreciate His purposes.”

2 Corinthians 4:7 AMP

However, we possess this precious treasure [the divine Light of the Gospel] in [frail, human] vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from ourselves.

2 Corinthians 4:8–12 NKJV

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)… Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.