God, give me a breakthrough!
Like you, I can’t count how many times I’ve prayed that. Also, I can’t count how many times it didn’t happen.
One of the hard things about coming to maturity in Christ is that it comes packaged inside our life experiences. These inevitably include disappointment because of unmet expectations, even regret fueled by retrospect.
This is dangerous ground.
Expectations are deceptive. Really, they’re premeditated disappointments.
Regret is worse because it denies the sovereignty of God over my past, which seeps into my present and infects my future. These perspectives feel rational and justified, but they’re self-righteous.
More importantly, they’re out of position.
It is the lifeblood of Jesus Christ that positions me. He didn’t choose to suffer the ultimate agony for any other reason than obedience to the Father. It is therefore appropriate for me to step down off my soapbox, lower my upraised fist, and admit that God is always working for me.
There is not a prayer He doesn’t answer, and His grace is enough to save even me.
If you're on board, here are six things I learned about breakthrough that I believe you will find extremely helpful.
1. Only the broken shall pass
Breakthrough is a compound word. That means it’s a mashup of at least two other words. In this case, breakthrough is what resulted when break and through weren’t quite perfect for some thinker or writer somewhere in history, and I’m grateful for the moment.
In the dictionary, breakthrough means that a person, place, or thing breaks through a barrier to get to an objective.
In the kingdom, you only have two choices when you're reckoning with the Chief Cornerstone: either you’re broken by it or it falls on you and ends you.
Breakthrough with Jesus means only the broken can go through.
If these things are true, all of my fervent prayers for breakthrough should help to explain the great mystery surrounding why, the more I pray this prayer, the more my world seems to fall apart.
The more I pray for breakthrough, the more my plans fail. The more I pray for breakthrough, the more my heart implodes because of deeper revelations of my own total depravity. The more I pray for breakthrough, the more I reveal what I actually believe, because when a man is under pressure, he will confess what he believes, and he will believe what he confesses (thank you, Joel Sikha).
In light of these truths, I can only encourage you to submit to the process. It will change you forever.
You’ll see all manner of “finished product” people who seem to just show up in the limelight ready for their closeup. What they’ll never tell you about, unless they’re humble or transparent enough, is the decades-long struggle they had to endure to get to the place you first became aware of them. Not many songwriters would volunteer a glimpse into the gritty dark of what they’ve had to endure in the pursuit of their dream. And even if they dared to be that honest, how empty is it to achieve your dream? How self-centered is that?
It’s a far better thing I do when I shut up and wait. There will be something to do when the time is right, though. I’ll show you that in a moment.
2. The center of the attack is all about identity
God really does use everything. He will even use Satan and his idiot minions to work his perfect plan to perfection. Ask Job.
In the case of your fervent righteous prayer for breakthrough, everything about you, believer, is fair game.
Grace is central to who you are, and it’s central to who God is.
The enemy without—those ancient and invisible principalities against which all the saints in all the ages have waged war—is going to try to make a desolation of your identity in Christ, and he’ll try the same with who you think Christ is.
Worse, the enemy within, that evil and wicked and unregenerate sinner you see in the mirror—into whose eyes you peer in your darkest moments, wondering if God really can spare you another chance—seems like it’s the one constant in your life every day that you draw breath under the sun.
There’s no getting away from your attackers when they’re all around.
The attack is all about identity. Not just
Who I am, but
Who God is.
You will see things about yourself that will, especially at this exalted point on your walk, shock you. You’ll run back to the old comforts when even God seems too harsh. This is how we learn (again) that there is no other savior but Jesus.
You’ll wake up in the night empty of hope because you’ll realize: all this time, you’ve been trying, however subtly, to earn what can only be given.
And you’ll realize—and this will be the beginning of the turning point for you—that God sees you. And if He sees you and hasn’t ended you yet, that must mean that His grace really is enough.
When that revelation hits—and it can’t be learned; it must be experienced—you will see light beginning to flood through the brokenness of the vessel that is all you know how to be, and you’ll realize: only broken vessels can do this. Only broken vessels admit the light through their imperfections.
Broken vessels are permeable, which means they are useless for holding anything but light. And only broken vessels have been reshaped enough for passage into the Narrow Way.
NB: Passage into the Narrow Way is both a one-time shot and a lifetime of agony. The further you walk with Jesus, the clearer it becomes that the Narrow Way is ever narrowing. It is this way because you really do need a miracle to get to the Father.
Jesus wasn't playing when He said that we need to be born again. That picture of passage from comfortable incubation to risky world is instructive. It is a trauma to be born, to be physically crushed enough to pass through from the womb to the waiting arms of love. It is the same in the spirit. We must suffer these traumas, we must be crushed until we are transformed, until Christ is fully formed in us.
It does take a miracle. Fear not, desperate saint, for He has provided One. And it is glorious.
3. How to ask
Ask and keep on asking, but not from a place of anxiety or FOMO (fear of missing out) because these are perilously close to giving orders. If you come before the throne of grace with a request, the last thing you want it to be is some kind of Christmas list. All of your requests should have a deep meaning and purpose in Christ. If you're just coming for self-enrichment, which is the kind of reaction to tension that anxiety produces, your ask isn’t in alignment with the Truth and is just a clanging gong.
And it’s no use keeping score of all the ways you’ve suffered or the things you’ve given away as you’ve pursued Christ, especially if it means you expect God to take your generosity into consideration. Giving like that isn’t giving; it’s a form of extortion, and God scoffs at holdups. Just let it all go. And trust. Teaching you how to trust is the reason why He brought you into the place of tension in the first place (remember that you asked for this when you asked for breakthrough).
Right now, you may see God as an adversary. If you do, it’s because you're choosing to be adversarial to him. He is always an advocate for the real you, the new you, the eternal you that is seated in untouchable realms with Christ Jesus. Remember your position, and make your request from there.
If you come to God with a request that acknowledges His power on the surface but refuses to acknowledge His purpose, there is still a problem. Your ask must have a kingdom purpose to be valid (blessed). Oftentimes power is found after purpose, so why bother chasing power? If the purpose is righteous, power will automatically come with it. You don’t need to seek out signs and wonders in your requests. You need to seek out the purpose of the Father in your requests.
Purpose first. Then power.
You don’t get to tell God how to deploy the gifts he’s given you. What you get to do is use what you have when and where the doors open. Like it or not. And if not, you're the one who needs to change. Not God.
Plus, all of these things are platitudes unless they have a specific application in your life. In order to find and pass through the next door, there must be application. If not, these things are just bumper stickers.
4. There is a cost
If you really want to know more or go deeper, it’s going to have a cost. Ask yourself:
Why do I want to know more?
Is it for me?
Is it for someone else?
Is it for God?
Am I prepared to endure what it will cost me?
Am I prepared to endure what it will cost others?
For me, it has been an agony walking in the place of breakthrough—where I not only cognitively know but have seen and lived my need for grace—but I would not trade it for anything.
When God is doing a deep work in me, that means I have deep fellowship with him.
That revelation is beyond any price I could hope to pay.
If you want to move forward, I recommend questions like these:
Do I want the answer or do I want the God who answers?
Do I wait for and trust the answer to my question or do I wait for and trust the God who asks a better question, one that surrenders to Him?
Is the answer my God, or is God my answer?
There’s no need to be scared of the dark when you can come out of the shadows. God’s promises aren’t just behind you, they’re in front of you. They are all around you.
5. When the light shines, it will humble you
Will God perform a miracle? Certainly. Since He is eternal, He already has. And you’ve been walking toward it this whole time. Really, and this will either piss you off or blow your mind, you've been walking in a miracle this whole time. Don’t you feel silly for doubting. Aren’t you inexpressibly grateful for the grace by which you stand.
While you were in the throes of your agony, He was working. And He still is, answering all those fervent prayers for brokenness that because of your ignorance you had labelled breakthrough, victory, and perfection but (you didn’t realize) were really just self-worship.
The answer will come, but you’d miss it if the Spirit of the Living God didn’t inhabit you. You’d miss it on your own because it won’t be where you’ve been looking so desperately to find it. But it will be there, and it will fulfill every question and cry you’ve uttered or groaned (or screamed), only it won’t be what you expect, it almost certainly won’t be what you originally wanted or asked for, and it won’t be what you thought it was going to be. What it will be is what you need. It will be what you didn’t know you needed. And the way you’ll know is that there will be joy inexpressible along with it. Why? Because when God blesses His children, He adds no sorrow with it.
This miracle will be readily explainable to bystanding unbelievers (there are wolves inside the sheepfold too). The miracle will be rational. It will make sense. The unbelievers and wolves will offer up a list of reasons why it wasn’t God (or not their version of God). They’ll walk away from you shaking their head and calling you a fool for your faith because they just won’t get it. They haven’t lived it; how could they understand it?
It will seem pedestrian and natural because it will come through a person or a place you:
didn’t expect, and
will require you to receive in a way that crucifies your pride.
For the seasoned saint, feel free to add the word again at the end of that last sentence.
This is what joining with the fellowship of His suffering is all about. This is what Paul meant when he considered his agony trash in comparison with his Great Reward: Jesus.
And you’ll trust, finally.
Your trust will be without condition or expectation.
It is a simple trust, the way a child would trust.
It is a dependent trust.
It is a trust without any kind of plan B.
It is a tender trust, too, for it can be taught and steered and corrected.
Most importantly, it is a confessional trust.
It declares its only hope is in Yeshua, whose Name means “Yahweh Saves.”
His very Name is an Action.
Believer, how awesome is your God? This is your breakthrough, and welcome to it.
6. The other side is…
Fearless. Perfect love realized means there’s no fear.
Free. It is for freedom we have been set free. Listen: We’ve been set free for freedom. No strings attached. The work the Father has for you is simply to believe in the One whom He has sent (that’s Jesus).
Joy. The joy of the Lord is your strength. No wonder the enemy of your soul hit you there hardest and most relentlessly. And thank God that joy comes every morning, just as grace is refreshed. I’m telling you, there is nowhere you can hope to run where God won’t find you, and it will not be to condemn you but to offer you peace.
Do yourself a favor:
Here's the part where you get to do something about your own breakthrough. The washing of the water of the Word is what you need.
Open your Bible app, select the NLT translation, and read aloud from Psalm 31.
Now do it again, taking your time.
Now read it one verse at a time and pause between, letting the words wash over you.
You may feel the joy of the Lord breaking you afresh, bringing you closer in and farther on.
It will help to add a soundtrack. Here are a couple of resources I recommend you listen to as you engage truth and wash off those lies:
Switchfoot: I Won't Let You Go
Elevation Worship: Parodoxology | The Full Experience
Now declare the truths from Psalm 27 to Psalm 31, and do it again and again until you believe them, not for your friend or neighbor or coworker (who have themselves all figured out and are really put together), but for you. For you. Even for you, yes, because these truths are even for me, too. I promise. I have lived them for myself.
God sees me.
God sees you.
I know this because I know that He sees me.
My return and response is to dance in the joy that is my strength. I am in a safe place no matter where I am, even in the presence of my enemies, for God sets the table and we dine there in the midst of these fruitless and impotent wars for kingdoms that are mere rubble.
Just as joy and peace are found in the midst of chaos and combat, breakthrough isn’t what you thought it was.
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