How many of us have prayed for a change of circumstance for months or years without seeing any significant change? Those prayers may be asking for the salvation of a loved one, a financial increase, a career opportunity, the healing of a damaged marriage, or a solution to a long-term health problem. When we have prayed consistently for a long-term problem, we are hoping for breakthrough. Breakthrough is the moment that a door opens, a heart changes, an offer materializes, or a health solution or supernatural healing arises. It is that moment when progress begins again.
Sometimes, prayer feels like you are swinging a battering ram against a huge iron door. At first, you began with optimism believing that the battering ram of your prayers and efforts would jar the door open. But after days and months of trying, the door may be scuffed but still feels impenetrable. You often think about quitting but something keeps you going. Then one day, with one final swing, the door hinges weaken, then break, and the once impossible door topples to the ground. You can now move ahead for victory. Breakthrough is a biblical theme. There are numerous stories of breakthrough in the Bible. From these, we can glean insights and principles for our own breakthroughs. Some of the best are in the Old Testament.
One of the most interesting stories in all of scripture is the account of the battle of Jericho. After forty years in the wilderness, the second generation of those who came out of Egypt crossed the Jordan River into Canaan. The first order of business was to take Jericho – a fortified city with a huge, imposing wall. Israel had no weapons of war for destroying walls. When Joshua inquired of the Lord about a strategy for breakthrough, the Lord said, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in” (Josh.6:2-5).
When facing Jericho, the Israelites needed a literal breakthrough. The strategy the Lord gave them seemed ludicrous from a natural point of few. But as the men marched, the priests blew the shofars, and the people shouted, the walls collapsed into rubble. The fighting men then charged into the city and victory was secured.
The first thing we see in this account is that breakthrough does not come by trusting in our own strength and wisdom but in doing it God’s way – even if conventional wisdom says that God’s way is totally contrary to reason. For instance, those who are needing financial breakthrough most likely would be counseled by “financial experts” to stop giving to the church or to certainly stop tithing until they were totally of out debt. The Lord says to tithe first, even in the face of lack, and then he will open the floodgates of heaven (Mal.3:10). The wise man said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Prov.3:5). Too many times, when we are seeking breakthroughs, we try to engineer the outcomes on our own. We fail to ask the Lord what he would have us do and often are unwilling to wait on him. We plunge ahead and sometimes create more opposition to the breakthrough we need because we were operating out of fear, the flesh, or our own wisdom.
Secondly, the wall fell when the priests blew the ram’s horns and the people shouted. The wall fell when the priests and people expended their breath. The word translated as breath is ruach in Hebrew. Ruach may be translated as breath, wind or Spirit. Breakthrough is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As we release the Spirit though our prayers and declarations, then breakthrough can come. God declared through Zechariah, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Zech.4:6). Breakthrough often comes when we stop trusting in out own efforts, our own manipulations, and when we quit striving with God as if we have to talk him into blessing us.
When we finally say that we are done, that we are helpless, and that we have no ability to affect the outcomes, then God often moves. Otherwise, we would assume that victory came through our efforts and our brilliance. Throughout scripture, God instructs his people to follow many unorthodox (crazy) strategies. They were strategies that would utterly fail without the Spirit of God giving supernatural victory. David Hernandez puts it this way. “Breakthrough does not come in your struggle; it comes in your surrender. It won’t be found in some brilliant strategy or aggressive action. Only when you do as God commands is the Holy Spirit able to bring down the walls that inhibit your progress” (David Diga Hernandez, Encountering the Holy Spirit, p.73).
For those seeking breakthrough, I believe this is spiritual counsel. It stands on two basic beliefs: God is good and God is powerful. Because he is good, he hears our prayers and is willing to act. Because he is powerful, nothing is too hard for him. He can do more than we can ask or imagine and is willing to do so when we trust in him rather than ourselves. Of course, there are things that may get in the way…unbelief, unrepented sin, unforgiveness, etc. that God wants us to remove so that his blessings are not bottlenecked. But, I think the bigger issue is trusting him enough to do it his way and depending fully on him. Just wanted to share some thoughts on breakthrough and may the Lord give you the breakthrough you need.
