“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” is an old saying we have heard many times before. Or someone might say to you, “I’m in the crucible of fire.” But what if you are stronger than you know? What if the very crucible that was meant to break you was broken by you? Copper is made in a ceramic crucible and in order to release the pure copper metal from it the crucible needs to be broken. In life we go through crucible experiences that can be painful. But what if the very crucible that caused the most pain was actually used to bring out the very best in you to the point where you became so strong that the crucible would have to break in order for the copper to come out.
Once in prayer I felt God tell me, “You are stronger than you know.” He repeated that phrase three times, “You are stronger than you know – You are stronger than you know – You are stronger than you know.” When God tells you something three times it must be important! I asked, “Lord, Why did you tell me this?”…Silence.
Within a few of weeks, my sixteen year old son’s health, that had been tenuous at best, took a serious turn. He wound up in the hospital where a picc line was inserted to help feed him intravenously because his weight had dropped to 68 pounds. I never signed up to be a nurse, that is for sure, but there I was doing saline clean-outs and mixing his lipid bag and hooking him up to IVs. I was definitely in a crucible experience. Those words the Lord spoke came back to me again…”You are stronger than you know.”
As I began to say this to myself I could feel strength rise up in me. I stayed with my son at the hospital, sleeping on a lumpy pull out chair what seemed like weeks. Friend after friend would text me saying, “You must be exhausted.” Even though I was completely fatigued and tested to my very core, the word the Lord gave me sustained me as I rehearsed it in my spirit, “You are stronger than you know, “You are stronger than you know.” “You are stronger than you know.” I purposely answered my friend’s texts with positive statements like, “I’m standing strong.” It was amazing how that gave me power and strength.
Today, if you are in a crucible situation, the word for you is…”You are stronger than you know.” The strength that you forge in the Wilderness season will break off the very thing that restrained you in your last season.
“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land–a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil, and honey, a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and
you can dig copper out of the hills.”
Deuteronomy 8:7-9 (NIV)
One fateful decision landed me smack in the middle of my own Wilderness…
Though I was obeying God’s voice, I spent the next several years “walking on water,” even though it felt more like I was treading water. A Journey Out of the Wilderness is for people going through a rough time—a Wilderness experience—where you feel as though you are “down for the count” and ready to give up. Wilderness Wanderers feel as though they are doing laps around the mountain, passing the same tree over and over again wondering, “Will this never end?” However, being in the Wilderness will be one of the most transformational times of your life.