Lord of the Breakthrough (Breakthrough, Part 1)

Originally published in this website on August 21, 2008

My kingdom is not of this world...


I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;

I will lead them in paths they have not known.

I will make darkness light before them,

And crooked places straight.

These things I will do for them,

And not forsake them.

Isaiah 42:16

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out
to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.
And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Hebrews 11:8

In the Bible God is known by many names, and one of my lifetime goals has been to study as many of His names as I can.

I have known Him to be my Creator, my Redeemer, my Faithful Father, my Friend, my Provider, my Healer, and many others.

As the year 2000 was about to start, God introduced me to another name by which He is known, the Lord of the Breakthrough.

I will share that precious experience in a two-part series on this blog.

In some of my earlier posts, I wrote that 1989-1999 was my season of pruning.

In gardening, pruning serves a very good purpose -- to promote growth and fruit-bearing. Often, the pruning cuts off even fair blossoms, a seeming waste. But out of the pain of this particular season came lasting fruit: God did open my heart to hunger for more of Him, and broke through many intellectual barriers in my mind.

I was not aware that the pruning season was about to end, or that I was on the threshold of a new beginning in my life. But I did sense a deepening intimacy in my relationship with God. That was also when He began giving me a name, or a theme, for each year as it was about to start.

Since 1996, one passage that I have repeatedly encountered was Hebrews 11:8 which reads:

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Obviously God wanted to make things very clear for me, which was so reassuring. He was calling me to higher obedience, giving me an inheritance...but it also required of me a deeper faith to obey.

Abraham has always been to me the prototype man of faith, and indeed he is. In my heart is a deep desire to really be a woman of faith. But for me to be just like Abraham, going out to an unknown place (literally or figuratively)...well, that was something else.

There were no specifics in the command. I have discovered this to be often the case with God. The decision to obey comes first, only then does He show the next step. What guarantees are there? Abraham himself had no guarantees when he stepped out in faith. All he had was the faith that the One who is calling is Faithful.

And God did prove Himself faithful to me. He prepared my heart, step by step.

The first word he gave me was "kingdom." At that time, my husband and I had not fully recovered from our financial disasters; I wasn't really sure of what the future had in store.

I had often poured my heart out to God regarding this but did not really expect a specific reply. One morning, however, He gave me a clear word through this verse:

"Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."(Luke 12:32)

What a delight, what a comfort those words were to me!

I was also studying Luke 12 at that time, and the entire chapter had a lot to say.

There were reminders not to be sidetracked from what God really wanted to do in me and through me.

God was telling me to take heart because my life did not consist in the abundance of my possessions: my net worth in this world was not how He measured my true value.

In that passage Jesus talks about seeking first His kingdom which wasn't a difficult thing to do because it was my Father's good pleasure to give me the kingdom!

I don't think God ever spoke to me this way before. Through these verses, my Father's comfort was so real, it was like I could reach out and touch it.

The year 2000 was the "year of the kingdom" for me. In books that I read, in sermons that I heard, in a hundred and one other ways... the word "kingdom" would somehow come up. That led me to study more intensively about the kingdom of God.

Where there is a kingdom, there is a King. Learning more about the Kingdom pointed me to God as the King of heaven, King of the universe, King of this world, King of my life.

I was given a different kind of longing, the longing to be a kingdom person, not a worldly person. I began to have a kingdom mindset, seeing things from the perspective of heaven. The good news that Jesus brought wasn't just any gospel, it was specifically about the gospel of the kingdom.

Things that I used to know only in my head came to have more personal meaning. Getting to know the King up close gave me a desire to know what heaven is really like.

The kingdom of heaven is actually an upside-down kingdom. Yes, God is King, He is the Almighty, He is holy, and He deserves royal treatment. And Heaven will be the grandest kingdom that this world has ever known. In fact, it could never compare with any earthly kingdom.

Nevertheless, it is an upside-down kingdom. What works for the kingdoms of this world is never going to work in God's kingdom.

Heaven operates under a totally different economy:

he who is first shall be last...

the meek shall inherit the earth...

the foolish things of this world will shame the wise...

he who loves his life will lose it,
and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life......

unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and die, it remains alone,
but if it dies, it produces much wheat...

God would speak these words to me in the early morning hours, and it felt like I was hearing these familiar words for the first time.

I knew I needed to be that grain of wheat, and let go of my self life. This was the season when I first understood the life out of death principle.

Everyday comes with a gift, the opportunity to "die" many deaths, and the choice to be vulnerable, instead of defending, protecting myself at every turn.

With each opportunity to die is an invitation to entrust my life to Him anew. Oh, to have a kingdom mindset in running the affairs of my life!

--0--

It's been almost ten years since God spoke that kingdom word to me, and here I am still learning kingdom lessons.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (2 Corinthians 10:3).

The way this world's system of "one upmanship" operates is not how the kingdom of heaven operates.

Oswald Chambers puts it this way: "Our Lord's teaching is always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a man, His purpose is to make a man exactly like Himself; and the characteristic of God is self-expenditure."

I have always loved those words anti-self-realization and self-expenditure.

This world is constantly luring me to develop my self, to realize my full potential... but Jesus emptied Himself, made Himself of no reputation, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped...but taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men...He became obedient to the point of death. (Philippians 2:6-8)

How self-protective, how easily offended I can get, though I may not show it. How judgmental I could become! But actually, offense and critical judgment are subtle forms of self-protection and self-realization.

Yet Jesus emptied Himself.

When oppressed and afflicted He opened not His mouth...
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)

That is anti-self-realization to the max! Knowing He was going to be killed, He didn't struggle to protect Himself. Also true of Isaac as Abraham was about to offer him as a sacrifice.

Built into my pruning experience was the call to embrace the humility of Christ. And although I have honestly said, "I gladly accept the call, I willingly surrender," still it goes against the grain of my human nature. Never an easy lesson to learn.

Self never surrenders without a fight. When I feel my boundaries being overstepped, or my motives misunderstood...

But Jesus willingly laid down His life.

Having a kingdom mindset is to know that my life is not my own.

Today I make another choice to live out kingdom truths in my daily living. I want to go up another level...

Another level,
Another harvest
Another day for You to manifest Your promises

Another moment
Another season for a breakthrough, breakthrough...

Another Level by Israel Houghton

My prayer:

Father, thank you for this season of breakthrough.

May the word You give me as Your daily bread nourish, break up and soften the hard portions of my heart where self still rules.

Make me always willing to give up any cherished belief, opinion, point of view, argument, any thought, that exalts itself above You and does not align with Your heart.

Protect me from the knowledge that puffs up. I only want Your love that builds up to be the motivation for my life!

Let Your word transform me, from the inside out, by its life-giving power. Free my heart from pockets of resistance that pride still occupies.

I honor you as King, I submit to You completely.

Read Breakthrough, Part 2