Breakthrough Sunday
Breakthrough Sunday
18th June 2023
Overview
1. Introduction – Breakthrough
2. We have to expectant for a breakthrough
3. We should be willing to obey what God says for a breakthrough
4. Obstacles can hinder our breakthroughs
5. Obstacles that a Child of God faces
6. How to come out of Obstacles
7. Situations that hinder our breakthroughs
8. Conclusion
Introduction - Breakthrough
Our God is a God of Breakthroughs. And God wants us to walk into a new season, this month where we will experience glorious breakthroughs in our lives.
So, David went to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there; and he said, “The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore, he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.
2 Samuel 5:20 (NKJV)
We can find that three things according to the Bible when we learn about breakthroughs:
1) They are Moments of Significant Change
2) They are Sudden bursts of Progress or Advancement in life
3) Important Turning Points in our Lives.
Breakthroughs are significant changes that happen in lives that are evident. They are sudden bursts of progress or advancements in life. Advancement means overcoming hurdles, moving forward, moving up the ladder, expanding, and growing in all areas of life. Breakthroughs give us advancements and open up some important turning points in our lives. God has a desire to give breakthroughs to all of us. To receive them:
a) We have to be expectant for a Breakthrough
Breakthroughs happen when there is an expectancy. When we are listening to the word of God, the Bible says, the Word of God gives us hope. This hope is not like the hope in the world or a kind of hope that we get from motivational speakers, but it is a living hope, the living word of God. And the Bible says, when we are expectant for a breakthrough, it will happen
b) We should be willing to obey what God says
Let my passion for life be restored, tasting joy in every breakthrough you bring to me. Hold me close to you with a willing spirit that obeys whatever you say.
Psalms 51:12 (TPT)
Many times, breakthroughs do not happen in our lives because we feel that we should be the best person according to our own will. God has a wonderful, elevated, and glorious plan for us, and in that plan, God has already predetermined certain things to happen in our lives and when we are ready to admit and accept what God wants, we will experience a breakthrough. Our breakthroughs delay not because God is not working but because we are not willing to obey what an apostolic leadership is saying, or what the Holy Spirit is saying but wherever there is a willingness to obey the voice of God and follow what Jesus says, there will be breakthroughs.
In the life of Lazarus Mary and Martha, when Jesus said to roll the stone, if they were reluctant to open that stone of the tomb where Lazarus was laid, they would not have seen the glorious miracle. But they obeyed the voice of Jesus and they did as Jesus asked them to do, and the miracle happened. Later we read in John chapter 11 and verse number 40, Jesus said “Martha and Mary did I not tell you that if you will believe in me, you will see the Glory of God.”
For a glorious breakthrough, all the reluctance in our life that make us fall from the Word of God or that hinders us to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit has to go away and our hearts should be tuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
There are things that hinder our breakthroughs
• Obstacles
• Challenges
• Not able to find the turning point in our lives
A) Obstacles
The one true God is my mighty refuge; he removes the obstacles in my way.
2 Samuel 22:33 (NET)
We have to understand that many times the devil can plan obstacles in our lives. In the life of King David, where David said that this was Baal Perazim, and this is a breakthrough, in reality, this was the season of obstacles in his life. And that is where he listened to the voice of God and inquired God about his next step. And there is a voice of God coming and saying, do not go in a normal way but use a strategy and God gives him a strategy and gets a breakthrough. He tuned his ears to listen to the voice of God and God opened his ears to hear the voice of the heavenly troops walking before him and even before he could do anything, a breakthrough happened.
In the book of Zechariah, it says,
‘What are you, O great mountain [of obstacles]? Before Zerubbabel [who will rebuild the temple] you will become a plain (insignificant)! And he will bring out the capstone [of the new temple] with loud shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’
Zechariah 4:7 (AMP)
Maybe we might be facing an obstacle as great as a mountain. And every time you see a mountain, it's something which says impossible. And that is why Jesus used the same term and said, if by faith, you look at a mountain, and command it to go and fall into the seas, it will be done. It is not talking about the physical mountain but Jesus wants us to command the big heap of problems like a mountain that we are facing to be removed, it will be removed because God is with us and it is God who will provide breakthroughs in our lives.
Do you know that Jesus wanted a breakthrough in his life?
A voice of one is calling out, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness [remove the obstacles]; Make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
Isaiah 40:5 (AMP)
This was a prophecy about John the Baptist and his ministry. When Jesus came, for the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, there had to be a breakthrough in removing all the obstacles. Jesus was probably not welcomed at that time at all, and it would not have been easy for Jesus to do the ministry during that time if John the Baptist ministry was not there.
And when Jesus came, all the curses were broken and a breakthrough happened. Breakthroughs are significant changes. And when Jesus came a significant change happened and the Bible itself got divided into the Old Covenant and the New Covenant and the New Way was introduced by God, which lightened our burdens from the bondage of the Law and released us into a Glorious Way
He says, “Build it! Build it! Clear a way! remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!”
Isaiah 57:14 (NET)
One of the translations talks about the healing of a backslider. A backslider is someone who has lost the passion and the first love for God. In the book of Revelations, when the Holy Spirit was writing the letter to the Church of Ephesians, the Holy Spirit said only one mistake, you have lost the passion, the first love passion for God. Passion for God and serving Him is very important. If only a breakthrough happens, can the passion increase. And that is why we need to pray for a breakthrough
Obstacles that a Child of God faces :
a) Our Iniquities
“When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I set an obstacle before him, he will die. If you have not warned him, he will die for his sin. The righteous deeds he performed will not be considered, but I will hold you accountable for his death.
Ezekiel 3:20 (NET)
Oftentimes, when we face trouble, we tend to blame it on the devil, but it is not the devil, it is our iniquities, that are the repetition of sins. The English word Sin is not developed from Greek that word existed even before the first translation of the Bible The word sin was actually done when the game of archery was played by the kings and as the arrow goes and if it does not hit on the right point, it is called as a sin, which actually means missing the right point. Sin is not only something like adultery or worldly behaviors but sin is turning away from God's Perfect Will. If we keep on missing God's perfect will, we are in iniquity and that becomes an obstacle in our life blocking our breakthroughs. The word of God says that if a righteous man turns away from God's righteousness and sin, I shall place an obstacle.
b) Wealth
They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth. Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury. They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth was the obstacle leading to their iniquity.
Ezekiel 7:19 (NET)
Sometimes, wealth becomes an obstacle in people’s life. There are people who have nothing and at that stage of their life, they are passionate about Jesus, and the moment God blessed them financially, they just walked out of God. When we put our dependency on wealth and not on God, It becomes an obstacle to a breakthrough in our life.
c) Idols that are in our hearts
“Son of man, these men have erected their idols in their hearts and placed the obstacle leading to their iniquity right before their faces. Should I really allow them to seek me?
Ezekiel 14:3 (NET)
Any idols in our hearts will stop the breakthroughs. Idols are not physical idols but anything or anyone in our hearts other than Savior Jesus Christ. The Bible says to love our Lord God with all our heart. Nothing should replace the place and the priority that God should be getting from our lives. The church is not a place where we come to become rich or receive blessings only, but we need to come to the church because of the love which is flowing from Lord Jesus Christ. There is no greater love than the one who has laid down his life for us. So when are believing in a breakthrough, there should not be any idols in our hearts.
How to come out of the Obstacles:
a) Repent and ask for Forgiveness
“Therefore, I will judge each person according to his conduct, O house of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and turn from all your wickedness; then it will not be an obstacle leading to iniquity.
Ezekiel 18:30 (NET)
The only way to come out of the obstacles is to repent and ask for forgiveness. We have to examine for any idols or sins or any wrong desires for anything other than God and we have to repent and come, then breakthroughs will happen.
b) Constant Communication with Holy Spirit
“And every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 (NET)
Every arrogant obstacle, or Any thought, any movement, any response that stands against the knowledge of God, the word of God tells it becomes an obstacle. In constant communication with the Holy Spirit, we will get to know whether every thought that we have is already brought under the obedience of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the communication is lost, we will miss the path and not realize and breakthroughs will be delayed or struck. But the constant communication with the Holy Spirit will always make us walk in the track of the Lord Jesus Christ thereby we can never hit any obstacle and fall dead, but we will be victorious.
Situations that hinder our Breakthrough :
a) Holding onto our Past
Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:19 (NKJV)
Forget those things behind and reach forward to things that are ahead
Philippians 3:13
b) Holding back or moving backward
And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.
Exodus 14:15 (NKJV)
Jesus says, ‘Step Forward’
Mark 3:3 (NKJV)
Our Steps are ordered by Lord Jesus Christ. If we are sensing a breakthrough in our life, we need to go forward. Any believer in Lord Jesus Christ is designed only to move forward not to go back in any sphere of life. Whether it is in our personal lives or spiritual lives, nowhere we are designed to move backward, but forward. God told Moses to move forward and when they moved, the greatest obstacle, the Red Sea parted. When they moved forward, the Bible says the pillar of the cloud which was leading took a step and came back and the glory became the rare guard.
Concluding Prayer
Lord Jesus, we desire a breakthrough. Lord, we surrender everything that can stand as an obstacle to our breakthrough and we submit our spirit, soul, and our body into your hands. Help us to recognize the timings and our seasons so that we can grab our breakthroughs.
In Jesus name,
Amen.