Unlocking Breakthroughs

Unlocking Breakthroughs

Philippians 4:6-7

There are two types of blessings:

1. Manna Blessings

o Story of how God gave the Israelites manna and water; Jesus healed and did signs and wonders

o Matthew 5:45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

o The manna blessing is the blessing you didn’t fight for; it is undeserved

o God is a blesser by nature. He gives rain to both the righteous and the sinners alike.

o God wants to provide for all your needs.

2. Promised Blessings – this is where we need breakthrough

o Long-term, impact of significance, awe-inspiring (not that the other blessing are not awe-inspiring)

o Comes with a long and great or impossible fight (possessing the land; dying on the cross; Hannah’s pray for a child)

How to unlock your breakthrough:

1. Call on to God

a. Jesus is not the last resort. We should come to Jesus first. We often think “When there’s nothing else we can do, let’s pray…”. Sometimes we do everything when we have problems, we worry, complain, live in fear and depression, ask others for advice, anything and everything but to go to the Lord.

b. We need to call on to God especially when we have problems… When we are under the shadow of the

mountain it is sometimes hard to go in prayer. Let’s focus on God and not on the mountain. God is bigger than any mountain! Isaiah 40:22-24; 40:25-26.

c. Psalms 5:2-3 “Listen to my cry for help, my king and my God, for to you I pray. In the morning my Lord you hear my voice. In the morning I lay all my requests to you and wait in expectation.”

d. You do not have, because you do not ask God – James 4:2

e. 1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your cares on him for he cares for you.”

f. Hebrews 4:16

g. Remember the ASK acronym. Keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking until something happens.

2. Believe in God

a. Possessing the promise is a great battle of faith.

b. God delights to increase the faith of His children...I say, and say it deliberately—trials, difficulties and sometimes defeat, are the very food of faith...We should take them out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us. - George Mueller

c. MATT. 17:20. He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

d. Faith is not faith until it is tested. We will undergo testing, don’t be surprised if your problem is magnified when you come to Jesus.

e. Hebrews 11:16 – Without faith it is impossible to please God.

f. A pastor talked about becoming a pump, he served and attended to the needs of others until he felt dry and empty. At a spiritual retreat his counselor said: “there’s only one thing to do when you’ve run dry, you’ve got to dig deeper”

g. Faith depends less on our outer journey – our situations, what happens to our life - - it depends more with our spiritual depth.

h. Jeremiah 17:5-8. Cursed are those who depend on man’s strength; blessed is he who trusts and have confidence in the Lord.

i. To develop faith, we need to dwell in God, to dwell on what he has done in the past, be reminded of his work in our lives and in the lives of others before us, especially in the word of God. The old testament writers always remind people about God’s great works, “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

j. The new testament also does the same: study the scriptures diligently to make us steady when trials bear down.

k. Having faith during times of trouble is not very easy, but we need to remember where we were and where we would be without God. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” asked Simon Peter when all others were leaving.

l. Indeed fath is putting out entire trust in God. Faith is surrender. Bill Hybels : “Let go and let God”. AA titled their book “Not God” because the first lesson they teach alcoholics: We need to quit playing God in our lives and allow the real God to be God.”

m. Unfortunately everything in modern city life conspires against our surrender. We worry about money, our jobs, what we need to have and to know. A man who got tired of life and became a monk once wrote: Living in faith involves me pleasing God and not God pleasing me.