Breakthrough is a sudden, dramatic and important discovery or development. It is an instance of achieving success in a particular sphere or activity.
The theme of breakthrough appears everywhere in our world:
- In the tech world.
- In science when someone find a breakthrough technology.
- Medical.
- In the military, when there is a movement or advance past the enemies line.
- In entertainment, when a project does something that has never been done before or someone has a break out role.
- In society, when there is a sudden shift or forward movement in an issue that was previously oppressed or misunderstood.
We see the theme of having a breakthrough in all areas of life and world.
I love how we see breakthroughs appear in the Bible because it is one of the defining characteristics of God’s nature. It shows His name, character, and desire to break us out of oppression or bring us breakthrough into His promises.
In some modern Christian circles this has become another inspirational buzzword and it is at times but when the Bible uses the terms about breakthrough they are never hypothetical or just inspirational, they are absolute about the nature of God.
You can’t be called to share out of God’s nature of breakthrough to others if you haven’t experienced it yourself. You plus God equals something.
All through history God called His people to walk radical assignments out and because of these they had the authority to hear and do for others of influence. Daniel, Ezekiel, Samuel and Martin Luther all experienced breakthrough that changed Christianity in his generation.
For example, my favorite place it appears is when David himself names a place after a name He identifies as God. It is one of the biggest slaps in the face to his rivals, the Philistines because David hijacks their own gods names and puts our God above them.
In 2 Samuel 5:20, we read, “So David went to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. ‘The LORD did it!’ David exclaimed. ‘He burst through my enemies like a raging flood!’ So he named that place Baal-perazim (which means ‘the Lord who breaks or bursts through’)” (NLT).
David is proclaiming this using the example of how waters during floods break through or burst out making new streams. It can’t be confined. When water breaks out of its banks, awesome visible power is displayed as the water pushes through everything in its way. David describes the power of God in a similar way because when God who He is upon a situation, His breakthrough, there was nothing that could stop it.
Have You Ever Needed Spiritual or Life Breakthrough?
Healing, deliverance, breaking oppression, financial, relational, Israel needed all of these breakthroughs at times. God showed their need and His power to break them through over and over as an example to us that there is nothing that can hold His love back from us.
We have moved out here in faith. Financially out on the biggest limb I had been. The market turned and my house went upside down. I had no way to pay for what I had here. Someone came and paid it off and it became a stamp of love on my identity.
Before this breakthrough happened for David and Israel, the scene in the Scripture is called “Valley of Rephaim,” meaning, “House of the Giant.” But here is what is awesome: After the breakthrough, it is called “Baal Perazim,” meaning, “Possessor of Breaches, Lord of the Breakthrough.”
One of the most awesome parts of this theme of David naming it this was that He used the name of Baal, a god of the Philistines to define it. He did this as a reminder that at this place, the enemy thought he was the strongest. So David called it “Baal Perazim,” declaring God broke through the stronghold of the enemy! Where the enemy looks or thinks he is strongest, that is where God will break through. He named His God above all the little giants of Baal.
This still happens for us today, God breaks through in awesome ways that belittle our enemies and cause the oppression against us to look small in comparison to His strength.
Not Just to Break Off But Break Into
Spiritual breakthrough isn’t just about breaking off something, it is also about advancing in unprecedented ways. Both of these have always been themes in the Bible and in history. We tell the stories of how God broke through and transformed the world, shifted countries, engaged culture through believers like you and I who dared to believe with radical faith.
True and lasting breakthrough starts in your identity and heart, the very core of who you are and what you believe. You have to know God as the one who wants your breakthrough from hardship and breakthrough into promise more than you do.
It is part of His revealed biblical role as a Father to us to bring breakthrough to you and the more you get to know Him the more you expect that the process of building relationship with Him brings about great breakthroughs in your family, opportunities and goals but it all comes from the core process of building connection with Him.
As I showed here, breakthrough isn’t just a catch phrase but one of God’s very names in the Bible.
God wants to reveal Himself as your Lord who breaks through, just like Micah prophesied to the Israelites.
Micah 2:13 One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head.
In verse 13, “The Breaker” appears to be the title for an individual who will rescue the Israelites. “The Breaker”: the one who goes ahead, breaks down obstacles and leads the way!
In Hebrew it is the phrase “ha poretz.”
This is the only time in the Bible that the phrase ha poretz appears to be the title of an individual. It is speaking about the Messiah for the Israelites, and is still one of the ways He wants us to relate to Him today.
Knowing God as the One who goes ahead of you for your breakthrough, leading you is one of the most comforting ways to know God. It also will give you the courage to blaze trails in areas of life that not many people would risk or dare to go in because they don’t have a relationship through their faith to trust that they will arrive at a destination that you do.
When we begin to pray into our own lives and apply the Bible to our circumstances, we start to see the effects of our God.
Some people are catalysts for breakthrough:
- Albert Einstein—science
- Pat Boone—entertainment
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—civil rights
- Billy Graham—Evangelism
There is always a price for breakthrough and obviously God displayed the most precious payment for our breakthrough through Jesus. The cross, tearing the veil, reconciling us to God. His breakthrough is our breakthrough.
The breaker not just helping us, but creating His original plan in our lives and not letting anything interfere with it
When you hear the stories of someone else’s breakthrough it creates faith for your own, yours does the same…your breakthrough becomes the light at the end of someone else’s tunnel. Romans 10:17 says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”
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Shawn Bolz is a TV and podcast host, an author, producer and a Christian minister. He has been leading conversations in the church, entertainment industry and in social justice that have helped believers connect their faith to culture in a transformative way. Shawn’s deeply connected yet humorous style of speaking, media hosting & coaching through his unique expert perspective has brought him around the world to meet with churches, CEO’s, entertainers and world leaders. To find out more, listen to his full podcast on The Shawn Bolz Show with Shawn Bolz: https://sites.libsyn.com/412208.
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