FOR THE SISTER STANDING IN THE PAUSE: WHEN THE DEMOLITION IS DONE BUT RESTORATION HASN’T SHOWN UP YET. 

There’s a moment right before your breakthrough when everything in you wants to quit.

You hear it so clearly it feels like your own voice. I can’t do this. It’s too hard. This can’t be God, because if it were, it wouldn’t hurt like this. 

I know that voice. When I had a complete nervous breakdown this past February, I said every one of those things. I can’t. I don’t have what it takes. Just let me go be with Jesus. Every single one.

So hear me, Sister, because I learned this the hard way: That voice is not a sign you’ve failed. It’s not a sign it’s over. When the enemy starts talking to you like that, it’s actually a sign that your breakthrough is closer than it has ever been. 

On last week’s episode we talked about how God’s holy demolition is the first step of full restoration. This week we’re getting into what happens in the pause: the space between the clearing out and the rebuilding, where the enemy makes his hardest play for your life, and where your real breakthrough gets decided. 

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Offense Is the Bait — Don’t Take It

Before we get to the pause, I’ve got to name the thing the enemy uses to get you off the path entirely. It’s offense. 

Offense is the bait of Satan. It doesn’t start with you… it happens to you. Something goes down, you get hurt, and a hook drops into the water. 

When Jesus told Peter that Satan wanted to sift him like wheat, do you know what the sifting agent was? Offense. Peter’s mind was offended that Jesus wasn’t bringing the Kingdom the way Peter thought He should.

And out of that offense, he denied the Lord three times.

Here’s the root of it, and it’s the same for all of us: Offense is really just a fear that we won’t be safe. And out of that fear we think and say things like: You should see me the way I need you to see me. You should speak to me the way I feel I need to be spoken to. This should be happening the way I think it should.

 And when it doesn’t, we feel exposed and offense offers itself like perverted armor to protect us. 

But watch what happens if you don’t deal with offense in real time before you make big life decisions. You’ll carry it right along with you to the next place you go. You’ll go find other people who share the same offense, and you build a little community around it, and now the offense is the thing you have in common. 

That’s not fellowship. That’s a trauma bond, and it will lead you into a demolition that God never ordained, one that only produces more loss and devastation.

The demolition that leads to restoration is the one God uses to free you. Offense you refuse to repent of produces the other kind. Know the difference and don’t take the enemy’s bait! 

The Lies the Enemy Whispers in the Pause

Once you’re in the real pause – the holy one, the three-days-in-the-grave kind – the enemy doesn’t leave you alone. He comes in close and he starts offering you coping mechanisms dressed up as relief: 

🥊 Fight your own way out. You’d better get moving or you’re going to die here. He’s trying to get you to strive in your own strength, Sis. And that will take you out. 

💊 Go ahead and numb it. Just take enough to black it all out. Now hear me clearly: God doesn’t necessarily have a problem with you taking medication. What He’s not fine with is you leaning spirit, soul, and body on anything that “checks you out” so you never have to face the hard thing. 

🫠 Just dissociate. Break your brain. Go offline for a while. I used to pray that. Just let me see the blue screen on my life, God. Reboot me. But what I really wanted was to stay checked out. 

Sister, none of those are signs your life is over. None of them mean you’ve lost or that this is the final failure. When the enemy talks to you like that, it is not the moment to lay down and admit defeat. It’s a sign that your breakthrough is imminent. 

That’s exactly why you need people in your corner and a house around you saying: “keep going, you were made for this!”

Surrender and Stand — But Not the Way You Think 

So, what do you actually do in the pause? You don’t strive. You don’t fix.

→ You surrender to God, And having done all, you stand firm. (Ephesians 6:13) 

Now, it’s true that if you want to see full restoration in Christ Jesus, you will come to the place where you must fully surrender and stand firm. But there’s a mystery in this step that God revealed to me in the middle of my own suffering, and I wanted to share it with you…

You do not have to muster up the willpower on your own to surrender and stand firm. There’s a decision that sits right before that one. Something YOU do so He can help you to surrender and stand firm. You ready for this?

You have to decide to trust Him.  

That’s it. If you’ll trust Him – with everything, in anything – He will put the surrender in you. He’ll supply what you need to stand firm. In His mercy and His grace, He gives you every good thing you need to hold the line in that pregnant pause between demolition and restoration. 

Because if you try to grit your teeth and surrender in your own strength, you know what that calls up? Striving. And striving is the very thing that takes you out. Trust is the door. Surrender is what He works in you once you walk through it. And standing firm is what you do on the other side. 

What Gethsemane Reveals About Suffering 

Look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, because this is the whole thing in one scene. 

The same offense that came for Peter came for Jesus. How do I know? Listen to His prayer: Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. That’s a mind being tempted to think: Maybe this is too much, I don’t understand how this can be the way. That’s a temptation to be offended at the assignment.

The Bible tells us even Jesus was tempted. He just never took the bait. Look at how He ends it: Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done.

That right there is a complete surrender to the will of the Father. And watch what happens the moment He prays it: an angel from heaven appears and strengthens Him. That’s the pattern. In surrender, heaven sends strengthening. Not before. In it. 

And notice, He was still in agony after the surrender. He sweat drops of blood. Doing the exact right thing did not make the suffering disappear.

So, if you’re suffering while you’re obeying, don’t let the enemy tell you that means you’ve missed God. Sometimes the deepest suffering is happening right in the center of His will. 

He’s Preparing You to Reign 

Here’s what I need you to understand about why any of this is allowed. 

God built human beings to prosper through extreme suffering, because He knew the enemy’s playbook before the foundations of the world were spoken into place. He’s a good Father. He saw what was coming for you, and He built the solution and the victory into you… everything you’d need to win even when the suffering got severe. 

Second Timothy 2 says it plainly: If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. The suffering isn’t random and it isn’t punishment. He’s preparing you to reign. To carry dominion. To walk in the authority He’s given you as an ambassador for Christ. 

Part of the reason there’s got to be a holy demolition is because the enemy has sown tares in the field of your purpose and assignment. Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares makes it clear, there’s going to be a bit of a season before we can remove the enemy’s schemes from our harvest. 

But that pause where it feels like the promise is getting choked out is actually the place of possibility. It’s where you put on the mind of Christ and start believing God at His word regardless of what your nervous brain is trying to tell you, because God is faithful to perform His promise.

So What Do You Do With This? 

Ephesians 6:10 tells us – Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 

Not in yourself. When you go through the darkest and toughest places of your journey in this life, your gifts won’t hold you. Your anointing won’t hold you. The things you know how to teach won’t even hold you. The only thing that stands for you is the Word of God and the love of Christ you’re planted in.

So here’s your one decision today. Not try harder to surrender. Not find the strength to stand. Just this: Will you choose to trust Him completely? 

Trust Him in the demolition. Trust Him in the pause when dust is settling and it feels like the world is holding its breath. Trust Him when the coping mechanisms come knocking trying to get you to strive or move prematurely or that voice tells you to quit. Put it all in His hands, and let God work the surrender and the standing in you. 

Because there’s a fight up ahead, and there’s a moment coming when He’ll tell you to move. But what you gain in the surrender and the standing now – what you learn about trusting Him in the dark night of the soul – it takes you to a new level where the ceiling becomes your floor. 

You’ve leveled up in Him and you’re never going back. Don’t quit in the pause, Sister. Your restoration is already on its way. 

🎯 Your Next Steps + Resources For You:

✅ Join me for Get Ready with God: I go live weekday mornings at 7:30am ET on Instagram and Facebook. Come start your day with me. 
👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericapyle
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✅ Come worship with us at REVIVE Church of Tampa: Sunday worship at 11am, in person and online. 1803 N. Howard Ave, Tampa, FL 33607. 
👉 https://www.facebook.com/revivechurchtampa 

✅ Subscribe to Positioned to Prosper Podcast: This is where breakthrough gets built, the kind that changes the pattern for you, your family, and the generations coming behind you. Subscribe so you do not miss the next one.

👉🏽 Apple Podcasts: ericapyle.com/apple
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👉🏽 YouTube: youtube.com/@ericapyle

📖 Scriptures Referenced in This Episode: Isaiah 58:11-12 | Luke 22:31-46 | John 21 | 1 Peter 5:10 | 2 Timothy 2:11-12 | Ephesians 6:10-13 

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Erica co-leads a local church alongside her husband, Doug, in Tampa, Florida called REVIVE Church of Tampa. You can visit the church’s website for more information about who we are, what we believe and how we show up as the Church in the heart of West Tampa and beyond.

REVIVE Church of Tampa

REVIVE Church of Tampa streams service live on Sunday mornings at 11am ET. You can find that livestream on our church Facebook page:

Live Service – Sundays at 11am ET

If you’re interested in joining the online campus of REVIVE Church of Tampa, you are welcome to join our community group on Facebook where we offer weekly discussion around the Friday and Sunday messages as well as discipleship Zoom groups and the opportunity to host others in your home as you stream services. You can find us here:

The ROCC: REVIVE Online Campus Community

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About this podcast:

Welcome to the Positioned to Prosper Podcast with Erica Pyle, where we dive deep into Biblical mindsets, strategies, and inspiration to help you thrive in every area of your life. Whether it’s faith, health, relationships, finances, business, or ministry, Erica’s here to equip you with the tools you need to get unstuck, overcome overwhelm, and avoid burnout as you pursue your purpose with intention.

Join Erica, co-lead pastor of REVIVE Church of Tampa, and founder/lead mentor of The Jesus Girl Gang, an online, group coaching mentorship for Christian women with a pioneering spirit, as she shares powerful teachings, practical advice, and pivotal strategies for breakthrough living without compromising on the things that matter most to you. With over 13 years of experience in pastoral ministry alongside her husband Doug, Erica brings a wealth of knowledge and a passionate heart for helping you live out God’s best for your life.

Each week, tune in for transformative insights that will empower you to build a Kingdom business or ministry, nurture your personal well-being, and create balanced, prosperous relationships. If you’re a faith-driven woman seeking to align your life with God’s purpose, you’re in the right place.

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