Welcome to the in touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday July 10th.

God's motive is never to break our spirit, but he does oppose our pride and independence.

In today's podcast, we learn what happens when you hold

on to something after God says let go. We crush grapes to get wine and we grind wheat to get bread and God breaks our self-will to make us

useful vessels for the kingdom of God and when you look into the scriptures, here's what you'll find.

You find God working in the lives of men and women in order to make them the godly persons

he wants them to be and to equip them for the kind of service that he has in mind.

And what I want to talk about in this message is God's path of brokenness.

Now usually when people think about brokenness they think about suffering and

hurt and pain and oftentimes forget what what is it all about, who's behind it all

what's the purpose of it is Is there any way to avoid that and

still be useful for God? Lots of questions and I want to answer those questions.

One of the most perfect persons in the scripture to demonstrate brokenness is the apostle

Paul.

So I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians, if you will, and in chapter 12.

And while you're turning to that, I'll just give you a little idea what's happening.

He is talking about his ministry, for example in Chapter 11, and defending his ministry, and also

in the process of doing so. he talks about all the things he's

been through from having been thrown into prison to being beaten 39 times out

in the sea left to swim for his life and so then he moves on down to talk

about the daily pressure of the churches that he's having to deal with and then

he talks about these visions that God has given him, these

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