Are you, or someone you know, experiencing an impossible situation right now? Perhaps it’s in a relationship, at church, or at work? Do you feel trapped in an addiction or stuck believing a lie about yourself?
It’s in these situations that we need to experience God’s supernatural power to break through these “stuck” areas of our life – in our homes, at our workplace, in our relationships, and in our churches.
But how does this happen?
The first step to experiencing breakthrough is to believe God is good.
This requires that we have a correct view of God and to understand what it means to believe in the Gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ.
Jesus announces the good news in Mark 1 and says: “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near.” And then He gives them a command: “Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)
This command to repent means to have a change of mind, to think differently about God and about yourself, and “believe the good news.”
The good news is not “What can I do for God?” or “How can I earn His favor?” The good news is an announcement of what God has already done for us. It’s an announcement that the God who made us, loves us. He wants to bless us. He’s for us. And He wants an intimate fellowship and relationship with us.
We are called to receive it and believe it – and not just intellectually. We’re to believe that He is willing to help us and bless us because He’s good. And then live out of the freedom and the reality.
Breakthrough requires that we accept that God wants to do not just something hard or difficult, but the impossible in us and through us.
In Mark 6, Jesus’s disciples are faced with an impossible situation. There are about 5000 men and probably the same number of women and children who came to listen to Jesus teach. And at the end of the day, the disciples realize everyone needs to eat.
So they say to Jesus, “Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
But (Jesus) answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” (Mark 6:36-38)
So the disciples give Jesus their five loaves and two fish, and He blesses the food and then gives it back to them to distribute to the crowd. Miraculously there is enough to feed everyone!
What’s the impossible situation that you’re facing today? Perhaps you’re asking Jesus, “Lord, I need a breakthrough – will you help?”
And just like He did with the disciples, Jesus is turning to you, looking you right in the eye, and saying, “You reach your neighborhood. You be the breakthrough at work. You take the first step in the reconciliation of this marriage. You break that addiction and bring other people with you.”
Perhaps you’re feeling surprised at His response, just like the disciples. But this is what He expects. And all His power is available to do it.
Jesus expects you to do impossible things, because He expects to do impossible things in you and through you.
How does it happen?
Find out what you have and bring it to Him. Then trust Him that when you understand, by faith, how good He is, and you’re willing to obey what He already said, that He will show up in ways that declare and reveal His glory and His goodness to you and to people that have no idea that He loves them.
That’s what breakthrough is about.
For more on this topic, check out Chip’s 10-session group study, Breakthrough: Unleashing God’s Power into Impossible Situations.
Written By
Chip Ingram
Founder & Teaching Pastor, Living on the Edge
Chip Ingram is the CEO and teaching pastor of Living on the Edge, an international teaching and discipleship ministry. A pastor for over thirty years, Chip has a unique ability to communicate truth and challenge people to live out their faith. He is the author of many books, including The Real God, Culture Shock and The Real Heaven. Chip and his wife, Theresa, have four grown children and twelve grandchildren and live in California.
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