Faith Gains: Why Your Spirit Needs Resistance to Grow (Ep 346)

Just like muscles need resistance to grow, your faith needs tests to develop. In this short episode, discover how challenges are God’s signals to develop your spirit and advance you to the next level in Christ.

Don’t just survive the pressure—train through it. God is preparing you for greater things.

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See the full episode transcript below.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the Jesus Smart x Podcast, Episode 346. I’m Brian Del Turco, and today we’re talking about faith gains—why your spirit needs resistance to grow. Think of this episode as a short, punchy kingdom protein shake for your spiritual life.

Just like the body needs weights and resistance to develop, your spirit grows when it encounters challenges. Let’s explore how trials, tests, and even spiritual warfare can actually serve as catalysts designed to strengthen our spirit.

The Body Thrives on Resistance

In fitness, you don’t get stronger by lifting air. Runners don’t improve by jogging in place. Muscles need weight, lungs need exertion, and the body adapts when faced with stress.

Lift heavier weights, walk faster, or surprise your body with something new—rucking with a weighted vest, or mixing intervals into your walk. These fresh, novel signals push the body to adapt and grow. Without them, the body atrophies.

It's the Same with Our Spirit

Here’s the connection: your new life in Christ is designed to grow under a load. Under resistance. Your spirit is like a muscle. It only develops when it’s tested. Trials, obstacles, and pressures aren’t meant to crush you ... they’re opportunities to be trained by God.

Colossians 3:10 says we “put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” Your new nature is dynamic, not static. Just as the body responds to weight training, your new man is renovated and renewed when tested.

Trials Are Growth Signals

James 1:2–4 reminds us to “count it all joy” when facing trials, because the testing of our faith produces endurance. And endurance leads to maturity, becoming complete, lacking nothing.

God is not trying to break you. He’s training you. Every challenge (and even an opportunity that requires faith) is a faith workout. When you see trials as invitations rather than interruptions, you shift into growth mode.

Takeaways for Faith Training

• Shift your view — See tests as opportunities to grow, not as obstacles to avoid.
• Lean into resistance — Pray, declare God’s Word, and obey His leading through the challenge.
• Track your progress — Notice how your faith, peace, and endurance increase through past trials.
• Don’t just survive resistance. Train through it. Let it shape you into a strong, mature follower of Christ.

The Joy Beyond the Test

Hebrews says Jesus endured the cross “for the joy set before Him.” Likewise, your trials are not the...