When we are waiting upon God for our breakthrough, we often think SUDDENLY. The problem arises from the fact that most of us have been trained to think ‘suddenly’ rather than ‘progressively’.
What is Progressive Breakthrough?
Breakthrough happens little by little each day. For example: Eagles sit on their eggs for 32 days in a stretch in order for them to hatch. Like the eagle, if you were to count each and every single day as contributing to the final result of producing a fully hatched eaglet, you can be sure that you too are making progress each day toward your breakthrough.
It may not be too obvious that we are breaking through when we only see partial favor or partial breakthrough in the various areas we are contending for. But this is no reason to doubt that God is certainly working behind the scenes. If an eagle were to stop sitting on her egg thinking that this one is a rotten one, she would never see her eaglet hatch out of her egg. God works best in secret. The mother eagle cannot poke the egg and make a hole to look inside and see how the eaglet is doing. She has to take it by faith. It’s only when you persevere that you can take your final breakthrough.
“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.” - Matthew 11:12
Breakthrough happens often in stages and steps. When you acknowledge this truth, you position yourself better and are able to be more patient and cheerful while you are going through the various stages leading to your breakthrough.
Every great miracle you see was always wrought through a series of steps. Even the greatest work of Salvation did not take place overnight. God had to be born in the flesh, he had to be raised, he had to attain maturity, be prepared for the cross and ultimately lay down his life, and go to the underworld to overcome death and be raised back to life. When His work was completed (40 days of ministry), He returned triumphant to heaven. At the end of the 40 days, God the Father sent the Holy Spirit to equip all his elect with great power.
Even the miracles of healing that Jesus did did not always happen instantaneously. In several cases, the healing only took place when the people followed through in obedience. Jesus asked the ten lepers to go and show themselves to the priest. In the case of a blind man, the Lord applied clay on his eyes and asked him to go and wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam. In the Old Testament, Naaman, the Syrian commander was humbled when Elisha asked Naaman to wash himself seven times in the Jordan. He was not willing to do what was required even though Elisha the prophet prophesied that his flesh will be restored and he will be cleansed! It took patient humbling on the commander’s part to attain his healing.
Only God can determine when we will break through. We only have to follow the rules. We only have to follow God’s leading each day. This is not burdensome because this is not our cross but the cross of Jesus Christ.
My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Mat 11:30.
There is no effort except to have faith in the Son of God and to do as he says because if we are obedient to his word and abide by his word at all times we can be assured that we are on the right track. God will certainly give us several signs on our path to breakthrough because he is a loving father and he wants to reassure us that he is constantly with us and guiding us in our path to victory. We feel alone at times when we do not feel God’s presence or we do not know how God is working in our situation but we can always pray and seek God’s face for understanding how exactly God is moving in our lives. This is the work that we need to do.
We need to hear from heaven and we need to believe what God is speaking to us and speak it over ourselves. We need to see God doing what he is doing and learn from it. As we keep on hearing and keep on doing in faith, we will break through progressively. We will see the ultimate fruit of our labor in the Lord which requires nothing but patient endurance and a calm disposition which is full of joyful expectation and constant rejoicing in the Lord. There is a cool confidence that can come only out of knowing that God is on your side. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He watches over you and ensures that all things will come together for your good. He cares about you deeply and even though we do not always understand how he cares for us or how he loves us, so long as we are reciprocating His love and experiencing His greatness everyday, we can rest peacefully in his loving providence and care over us.
On the other hand, it is possible to wait patiently and then give up because we do not see anything. We cannot find faith in our hearts to believe but if we look to Joseph, David, Daniel and Paul and all the others that God used mightily, we can be certain that they too did not see many signs that they were going to attain their breakthrough. In fact, in many cases, their condition became more and more desperate. David lost his family, support and possessions overnight right before his greatest victory of becoming king of Judah. He could have given up saying, “This is a lost cause. God is dead. I was a fool to believe in something that does not even exist. I have just been so naïve believing in fairy tales and storybooks.” But instead he encouraged himself in the Lord. He knew beyond a shadow of doubt that God was with Him. He did not believe for a second that God was powerless to help him but he continued to persist in believing in a good God until finally he SAW what he was believing for.
Jesus was stripped of all his Glory when he entered the earth. He was reduced to a state of mortality. Even while he was fully man, He was fully God because He could not do away with His nature. In His humanness, he felt all the compulsions of the flesh just as we are. He was tempted in every way and yet he did not give into sin.
It is this wonder working power that works in us to restore us and redeem us from our human condition. We must follow the example of Jesus to ultimately breakthrough just as he did. He was obedient to the father and ever so tied to the father’s heart that even though the worst was required of him, he did not falter and give himself to the weakness of his flesh.
He saw the future Glory that God had promised him. He saw the redemption of countless souls and greatly rejoiced in experiencing the joys of heaven. He saw himself lifted up to the right hand of God the Father, interceding for all the people who are yet to enter into the kingdom and being glad for the Holy Spirit being sent to the earth for us.
The Holy Spirit is God’s power working for us. He has been given to us for a very special purpose — the redemption of our souls and the fulfillment of our calling and election. The successful execution of these two functions rest on his power over us. It is only when we follow the Holy Spirit in every way as Jesus followed God the Father that we can break through all of the situations that seem extremely impossible and difficult. What seems impossible today will one day become your warm-up. We are all attaining the likeness of Christ every second and every hour of our lives. We are becoming more and more like God who came to earth to show us the way and lead us to the heaven that we desire. As we rest in God’s power working in us, He will lead us and guide us in every situation of our lives. Let us sing His holy praises and let us lift up thanks for God’s Kingdom is being established in each one of us progressively.