Making Room for Breakthrough, Part 1

I have a little devotional, called Magnificent Prayer, about prayer that I read just about every morning, and I came across a quote that literally kind of energized my whole view of breakthrough.

It’s by a preacher of the nineteenth century; his name is Phillips Brooks, and he said this: “Pray the largest prayers. You cannot think a prayer so large that God, in answering it, will not wish you had made it larger.” Now, is that an amazing thought? You cannot pray a prayer that, no matter how large it was, that after you have prayed it, God would wish that you would have made it larger. And then, I love the last line. He says, “Pray not for crutches, but for wings.” Don’t pray for a little help to get through the situation; pray to soar.

And it just reminded me, God is good. God wants to bless you. He wants to intervene. He wants to take the most difficult situations, the most difficult relationships, the most amazing things that you couldn’t fathom in your neighborhood, and at your job, and with your relatives, and with your past, and with your struggles, and He wants to – Whoo! – blow His power into them and change them.

What would happen if the power of God was released in your life, and then through your life?

We’re going to learn that He wants to do it, but we’re going to learn, also, that we have to make room. Isaiah 53 is the biggest breakthrough – God talks about, a Messiah is going to come and liberate and bring light. A Messiah is going to come, and He’s going to bring life and forgiveness.

But in chapter 54, He says to Israel, at a time when, I mean, their life is not going well, and breakthrough doesn’t even seem possible – He says this to them: “Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; lengthen your cords, strengthen your pegs.” Why? “For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. Your descendants” – I mean, they’re in captivity. “Your descendants are going to resettle cities and nations. God is going to use you.”

He’s saying, “You need to make room for the huge and amazing blessing beyond what you can imagine is coming.” And what I want you to know is that you and I have to do that in our private lives. We’ve got to do it in our relational lives. And we need to make room, even in the Church, to let God work.

So, what is a breakthrough? It’s an offensive thrust that penetrates and carries beyond a defensive line in warfare. We’re in a war, and it’s a war for your soul, and it’s a war for the future. But breakthrough isn’t something we wait around and hope God will do, someday, some way, sometime. God has promised and wants to – it’s something we do. Only He makes it happen, but there’s initiative on our part. It’s an act or instance of breaking through an obstacle.

What we’re talking about is not for special people that get in stained glass someday. What we’re talking about is the God of the universe that wants to take the person that’s sitting in your seat, and get you to believe and to trust that He’s so good and so kind and so willing and so powerful, that He would use an ordinary person like you – to receive that and then pass it on.

If what I just said is true – and it’s borne out in Scripture; it’s borne out in Church history - How does breakthrough actually happen? How does it happen? This isn’t theory; this isn’t what ought or should or maybe could happen someday, some way. How does it happen?

The answer is, the pathway to breakthrough involves three things. But I want you to know the pathway to breakthrough involves God’s sovereign work in the world, first and foremost. And then, we’re going to see it’s His sovereign work in His people. And finally, a little bit later, we’ll see it’s His sovereign work through His people. Let’s take them one at a time.

First of all, God’s sovereign work in the world. When you look at how God has broken through – in seasons in the Old Testament, in captivity, in the coming of Christ, in major things like the Reformation, when you see what happened in China or in Korea, in South America or in Africa in the last ninety or a hundred years – the pattern is all the same.

Number one, there’s external pressure. External pressure. Stuff starts happening – economies, politics, shifts, famine, plagues, difficulties. There’s external pressure in the world.

Simultaneously, there’s internal deterioration. This is a picture of the Roman Empire. God didn’t just come at a certain time. Galatians 4:4 says when the world was pregnant, when it was ready, when the world was ripe for a breakthrough – there was external pressure. There were ethnic divisions. There were problems with the economy. There was Roman and Greek culture in conflict.

And there was internal deterioration – infanticide, families, women being passed around, being divorced seven, eight, and nine times. There was a global crisis. And into that, breakthrough, Jesus came.

And you see that pattern – God sovereignly works. We’re going to talk about our responsibility, but jot, if you would, in the corner, Job 42:2. It’s near the end of the book. And if you know the story of Job, he’s been through a lot. And he didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes. But as he gets near to the end of the book and sees life for how it is, this is what Job says: “I know O God that You can do anything, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.”

I will tell you this: No purpose of God will be thwarted in your life, in this country, in any nation, or in all of history. God is sovereignly at work, and He will take the error and the pain, the disobedience, the judgment, the faithfulness of people, and He aligns those things, and He brings about the velvet vise of external pressure.

And then, as the way people live begins to deteriorate, and they realize they have need, He creates windows of crisis in individuals’ lives, windows of crisis in groups and in churches, and in cities and in nations, and when there’s responsiveness, we make room. And when we make room – Whooo! – the Spirit of God blows with power, and He works in individuals, and revolutions occur. And we’ve seen it happen over and over and over.

Second, it’s the sovereign work of God, not just in the world, but He always begins with His people. When you happen to be a follower of Christ for a while, after a while, what we start doing is, “You know, the problem is Hollywood. I mean, are they just putting out a bunch of lousy stuff, or what?” Or, “You know what? It’s the government. I mean, let’s have coffee and just talk about the government.” Or, “You know what? The educational system,” right? Or, “Those corporations,” or, “It’s all those lazy people.” What we tend to do is, we find someone else, somewhere, where the problem is, to blame, and I will tell you this – here’s God’s perspective: Repentance always begins with a household of faith.

Here’s the principle: God must work deeply in you, before He will work powerfully through you. That’s always His agenda. I mean, He worked in Paul; He worked in Peter. You look at what happened in China – He worked in people. External pressure, persecution, kick the missionaries out. You look at Korea, a pagan nation. You look at what’s happened in South America.

You look at the last ninety or one hundred years in Africa. At the current rate, there will be more black Christians than white Christians in the world, because of the movement and the power of God. But He always starts in us. He always puts His finger on what He wants to do in us.

And so, individuals have a breakthrough, like an apostle Paul. And then, a group has a breakthrough, like the Church. And the early Church breakthrough was to realize – can you imagine this? “You mean, God doesn’t just love Jews?” This was hundreds of years of – phooo! – breakthrough. “He cares about them?”

And after that breakthrough, then you see communities impacted. And as it’s rolled out in the New Testament, you go from the Jews to, then, the Samaritans, the mixed breed, and then, by chapter 10, it’s the Gentiles. And what you see is a spontaneous movement of God, and often centered around cities. City movements are birthed, and nations are transformed.

In 1857 – it’s an interesting story, and there are many more of these – but in 1857, morality in America was in the pits. If you know some of the research between 1857 to about 1890 or close to 1900, it went from about the average of seven kids, to three kids, because abortion was so widespread in America. And thanks, believe it or not, to the feminists and the American Medical Society, they said, “How we’re treating women –” Abortion was just basically birth control. Pushed on women.

And in 1857, with external pressures, and then internal deterioration, a group of people thought, Something needs to happen, and they started praying in New York City.

In that little prayer meeting, they just began, they took three requests, answers; three requests, answers; three requests, answers. And all I can tell you is, they made room for God. And they said, “You know, we got a big problem, and this country’s going down the tubes. And boy, there are all kind of issues, and it’s family issues and moral issues, and economic issues and…”

And pretty soon, something happened, and thousands of people were taking their lunch hour, all over New York, and praying. And then, pretty soon, it went to other major cities, and literally, statistically, millions of people came to Christ, and there was a reshifting and a rebalancing. Why? Because God worked in His people.

The litmus test of when the Spirit of God supernaturally works is He’s orchestrating things in the world, sovereignly. And then, He begins to work in His people, dynamically. And then, His people get it, and they begin to deal with issues in their heart and their relationships. And then He works through them, supernaturally.

Notice God’s sovereign work through His people. Here’s what happens: There’s life! And since it comes, not because I’m trying hard, I’m going to church more, I’m praying harder – “Oh, God, please listen to me!”

It comes because we Christians realize the good in life isn’t out there; it’s from God. We start believing our own message: “It’s the Gospel; He’s merciful.” “I’m a Christian and I love God, and I have an eating disorder.” “I’m a Christian and I love God, and I’ve got one divorce in my past, and it looks like another one’s on the radar soon.” “I’m a Christian and I love God, but the – I’m working, like, ninety hours, and I’m telling myself that…”

And we feel shame, and so what most Christians do is try to project everything’s okay and fake it. Because down deep, you don’t believe God’s good. You don’t believe He’s patient. You don’t believe He’s tolerant. Unlike the prodigal, you don’t believe you have a Father that’s going, “Son, daughter, come home! I understand! You’re in the pigpen. You’re doing life your way, instead of My way. I’m not down on you.”

Every day, what did the father do? I wonder if he’s coming today. I wonder if he’s coming today. And so, Jesus, what He says to the Church, so He can work through it, He says, “Come. Come to Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden or stressed out and trapped with sin and shame and difficulty. I’m not down on you. All the judgment that I have, I’ve already placed on My Son. You’re forgiven. Come to Me.” And are you ready? “Don’t have some little emotional experience. Come unto Me, all of you that are laboring and stressed out and under pressure, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke.”

It’s a picture of the oxen, and Jesus says, I’m on this side. I want you to get your life hooked up with Mine, and I want you to let Me lead. I’ve got the power. In fact, your side of it will be light. My burden is light; it’s not burdensome. I want you to do marriage My way. I want you to do your finances My way. I want you to do your thinking My way. I want you to discover how much or how little or what to do with the media the way I would. Why? Because I’m good, Because I want to give you the best. And all the mistakes and all the junk – you don’t have to hide from Me. You don’t have to be in shame. I want to forgive and restore, just like I did when you first trusted Me. And then, I want to do life with you, and I want to empower you. And we need to erase some of those old tapes and some of those lies and some of the stuff that is just absolutely messing you up. Because I’m good. I’m merciful.

Do you know what mercy is? Do you know what the word means? It means, “you don’t get what you deserve.” We don’t believe God’s merciful. We think we’re going to come, and He’s got a big ruler, like, this cosmic ruler – Whap! Whap! Whap! Now, when we come, we’ve got to get honest. And He’ll change us. But you’ve got to come.

And when you do, here’s what happens to all those people around you. He’s not just working in the world, and He’s not just working in you – He starts working through you. And your focus – instead of all your energy on trying to find the good out there, and hiding in shame from God – is, neighbors are known and loved. Coworkers observe excellence, integrity, and concern. A community’s deepest needs are met. The poor get fed. HIV patients get a drive to their doctor. And you’re not concerned about how they got it, because you realize – you know what? – God, mercy and goodness is really as much for everyone else in the world, as it has been for you. Paul would say, “I was a chief among sinners.”

Some of us are so uptight about people’s lifestyle, or their behavior, or where they’re coming from, or the direction of this or that, that we’re not kingdom people anymore; we’re our people, and, “Don’t mess up our little world and our country,” like it’s ours. I’ve got news for you! The kingdom of God is near, and the kingdom is, “I want you to think about these people the way I do. They’re hurting; they’re lost. They have needs; they have hurts. Their relationships aren’t working. They’re in bondage. And I want to set them free and love them like I did you.” And that begins to produce some things.

Research tells us, when a city sees about ten percent of the population converted to Christ, you begin to see a ripple effect. Then, educational, governmental, corporate, and entertainment cultures – they get transformed.

But they don’t get transformed by external power, and saying, “This is the way it’s going to be, because we’re going to say what happens in a country.” They get transformed, historically and biblically, because how we live transforms things from the inside out. The values are so attractive, it’s not “you Christians” against “us.” It’s “you Christians” meeting the deepest needs and living the life. “I wish I had a marriage like yours, the way He repaired it.” “I wish I had a relationship with my kids like yours.” “I wish my finances were in order, at a time like this, like yours.” “I wish I experienced peace the way I see you do.”

Rodney Stark, in a very interesting book that’s probably worth reading – he’s a secular author. I don’t know if he’s still a secular author, because this book, I think, rocked his world. He wrote a book called The Rise of Christianity.

He’s a sociologist, and he wanted to figure out – because it didn’t make any sense to him – what were the cultural or sociological issues that, in the first century, could begin with a few thousand people, and, by the fourth century – actually, 313 A.D. – have the majority of the population of the Roman Empire be followers of Jesus?

It was estimated there were about sixty million people in the Roman Empire at 313, and about thirty-three million of them were followers of Jesus. And there’s no book of Acts; there are no miracles; there’s no this, no that. All he does is, he’s looking at the research.

And as he looks at it, he realizes, in the first century, there are two epic plagues that wipe out, at times, a third of the whole population. And so, the elite run to the hills and run away, but there’s one group that feed people, nurse people, give them food, and, in many cases, lose their lives. At times, whole towns – two-thirds of towns – would be lost. This happened twice in the first century.

And out of all his empirical data, what he says is, the Christians loved people. The Christians cared. The Christians didn’t change the culture externally. What happened was, the people that were left were Christians, or the people that Christians loved, and when your family members have died, and these are the people that loved you and cared for you, there were great conversions.

Later on, in the next few centuries, Stark points out that there were three major cultural issues that destroy a culture. Number one, he said, there was no sanitation, and there was ethnic division. Number two, he said, the treatment of women was deplorable. And third, he said, we had a situation where, all around the known world, infanticide – children were routinely drowned.

And what the Church did is, they expressed the goodness of God, and they began to clean up and find cultural solutions that were creative to sanitation. They elevated women as coheirs of the grace of God and, in their relationships, treated them quite differently than a piece of meat to be passed around or to be used. And they began to pick up the children from the dumps and raise them themselves. And he said it was this internal magnification of the – he wouldn’t call it the “grace of God,” because he didn’t use those terms, or the “goodness of God,” but from a cultural perspective. Do you get – that’s what God wants to do.