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Position Yourself For A Breakthrough

A breakthrough is defined as a sudden, dramatic, and important discovery or development. The word is also used to describe the achievement of success in an area. The opposite of a breakthrough is a setback. When we pray about difficult situations, we focus our desire and purpose for prayer is to get a breakthrough, but understanding what a breakthrough is and what it involves can help us pray more effectively. In the bible we read many accounts of people who faced challenges and received a breakthrough from the God. David called Him, the God of the breakthrough, for it is He who causes and effects breakthrough when we pray.

 

 

Position yourself for a breakthrough

‘So Jacob was left alone, and a Man [came and] wrestled with him until daybreak. When the Man saw that he had not prevailed against Jacob, He touched his hip joint; and Jacob’s hip was dislocated as he wrestled with Him. Then He said, “Let Me go, for day is breaking,” But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You declare a blessing on me.” So He asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” And He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men and you have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked Him, “Please tell me Your name.” But He said, “Why is it that you ask My name?” And He declared a blessing [of the covenant promises] on Jacob there. So Jacob named the place Peniel (face of God), saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life has not been snatched away.” Now the sun rose on him as he passed Penuel (Peniel), and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh by the tendon of the hip.’ – Genesis 32:22-32, AMP

 

What sets us up for a breakthrough? Naturally any difficult situation is a set up for a breakthrough because it is in the darkness that the light who is God shines brightest. It is when there is chaos and no natural intervention can ever solve the problem, that God has the opportunity to show Himself and use the circumstance for His glory. He does His best work in the most difficult situation. Therefore, it should be understood that any time we face challenges that we cannot deal with in our own human strength and by our own human understanding, we should expect a breakthrough. It is in the tough situation that we should expect God to work. Difficult times are not meant to highlight our weaknesses but enhance the strength of God in us.

‘And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’ – 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, NKJV

 

Coming back to the account of Jacob when he wrestled with God, we find that he was in desperate need of a breakthrough. He had taken his brother Esau’s birthright and had been blessed, and as he was about to go face to face with Esau, Jacob was distressed. He did not know whether Esau would take revenge on him, and Esau was a skilled hunter like his father, so he was stronger than Jacob physically. The night before meeting Esau, Jacob was so distressed that he isolated himself from his wives and was alone. Jacob needed a breakthrough but through divine intervention he had to be properly positioned to receive what he needed. Jacob wrestled with a man, and we gather from reading on that it was God he wrestled with. When the man approached Jacob, they began to fight and then the man touched his hip and his hip was dislocated. This would have meant that Jacob could no longer stand, as the hip joint provides the stability needed during standing and walking. This would have left Jacob immobilized. The dislocation would have also caused Jacob a tremendous amount of pain and discomfort. In spite of the pain, Jacob said he would not let go of the man he wrestled with until the man had blessed him. This demonstrates Jacob’s desperation. He was desperate enough to put his pain aside to be blessed. Being in a difficult position, with a broken hip, in pain, uncomfortable and desperate put Jacob in the perfect position for a breakthrough. This was a situation that only the hand of God could fix, and not only did God help Jacob, but He used this situation to show His glory. It was then that God made a covenant with Jacob, by renaming him Israel and blessing him.

 

It does seem a bit odd that God would have to dislocate Jacob’s hip though. Was it really necessary to break Jacob’s hip? And after a man breaks his hip, why did Jacob then ask that man to bless him. We need to look deeper into what had happened and understand who Jacob was. When Jacob was isolated and distressed, a man came to him. Naturally Jacob started fighting the man. Jacob did not know who the man was or why he had come to Jacob. All Jacob knew was to fight and defend himself, he wasn’t used to getting the blessing easy. When he got the birthright blessing, he had to resort to trickery, it didn’t just fall into his lap with no effort. In a state of emotional stress, everyone is considered an enemy and we instinctively fight everyone even if they come to us to help or do something good, we don’t see the good because of our own fear and insecurity. Jacob’s instinct based on his past experiences was to fight and when the man approached him, instinct kicked in and he fought. The bible is clear that the man only touched Jacob’s hip because the man realized that Jacob wouldn’t stop fighting him. This was because God had to get Jacob in the correct position for the breakthrough. The position in the physical was for Jacob to be brought to his knees, likewise the position for the breakthrough in the spiritual is to be completely surrendered to God’s will and let God do the work. It is to be at rest in God, for it is when we rest that God moves. We see this even in the life of David when he needed a breakthrough, he first enquired of the Lord because he knew the only way to ensure a breakthrough was to ensure that he was resting in God’s will and His plan.

 

‘David asked God, shall I go up against the Philistines? And will You deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said, Go up, and I will deliver them into your hand. So [Israel] came up to Baal-perazim, and David smote [the Philistines] there. Then David said, God has broken my enemies by my hand, like the bursting forth of waters. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim [Lord of breaking through].’ – 1 Chronicles 14:10-11, AMPC

 

Isn’t it interesting that one touch from the man dislocated the hip of Jacob, yet they had been wrestling for a while and Jacob’s hip didn’t break. He hadn’t sustained injuries from wrestling, because afterward he only limped because of the dislocated hip. If one touch from the man had so much power, then by wrestling him, he could have killed Jacob. It is this that tells us and probably made Jacob realise who this man was. It also made Jacob realise that the intention of the man was not to kill him, as he could have done so if he wanted. Once Jacob realized who it was that he was fighting, Jacob changed his attitude from one of defense to asking the man to bless him before he left.

 

Sometimes God shows up for us when we least expect and in a way that seems unconventional and we fight Him because at first we don’t realise that it is God. In fact every time something doesn’t go as planned or the way we think it should, we blame the adversary and think that it must be him behind our stress. We do this simply because we don’t always understand God’s method of preparing us for what he has for us. Usually by the time God shows up we are in a state of high emotions, and when our emotions don’t line up with what our spirit knows, we make bad decisions. In that emotional state, feeling stressed and disappointed mean we go into fight mode and fight not knowing that we could be fighting the very hand of God. When Jacob’s hip was dislocated it got his attention, because the pain would have made him slow down. In our own life, sometimes God has to get our attention so that we can also be immobilized. It is only when we stop working that God can do what He intends to do in and through us. As long as we are fighting and doing things our own way, God cannot work. This should leave us eternally grateful that God does not leave us in the state He found us, and will do what is necessary to get our attention so that He can bless us. The difficulty and the pain is only temporal but He measures it out against the end result and loves us enough to let us go through difficulty so that we can come through successful.     

 

An uncomfortable breakthrough

‘After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed, waiting for the moving of the water; For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’” Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’? But the one who was healed did not know who is was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worst thing come upon you.” The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who has made him well. – John 5:1-16, NKJV

 

Bethesda means a ‘house of mercy’. The pool of Bethesda is geographically located in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem and was associated with healing. The five porches signify the grace of God, as there was no pre-requisite to receiving healing, except that the one desiring to be healed be desperate enough to get into the pool. We read in the gospel of John, about a certain man who had been sick for 38 years. The number 38 signifies work or labor, and references the idea of ones’ life work and purpose. In this instance it is Jesus who seeks out the sick man instead of the other way around. Jesus approached the man and asked him an interesting question, one to which the answer should have been obvious. Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made well. The man’s answered Jesus, and tried to explain that he did try to get in to the pool and explained how he felt discouraged watching others get in before him, the bitterness being evident. Yet, the all-knowing Jesus asked the question, that He would have already had the answer to.

 

When Jesus healed him, he instructed the man to take his bed with him and not just to go his merry way. A bed is a very comfortable place, a place of safety. The only material thing that one may miss when they are away from home is the comfort of their own bed. Perhaps the man lying on a bed by the pool looked too comfortable, thereby prompting Jesus to clarify whether he actually wanted a breakthrough.

 

What is noteworthy is that Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made well, not just healed. There is a difference between being healed physically and being made well. Being made well would refer to be made whole from the inside. If the man has just been healed without being made well, then he would have been at risk of the infirmity he had causing the physical ailments to return. This is the reason that when Jesus met him again at the temple, Jesus told him to not continue in sin so that nothing worse happens to him. This is why Jesus instructed him to take his bed, as his bed represented his past and everything that was keeping him in the state of infirmity and preventing him from being healed physically. The physical ailment was the manifestation of a spiritual stronghold and only once that was uprooted, the man was made completely well. Body, mind and spirit.

 

The man went from the pool to the temple. If Jesus told him to rise and walk, he would have walked to the temple without his bed. Every time he couldn’t get into the pool first, he went back to bed. Anything that has been nurtured for too long becomes a comfortable and familiar place, pain and pleasure alike. The temple, on the Sabbath, was a place of worship where entered God’s presence. It is important that when you enter the presence of God, you show up with all your ‘baggage’, the good, the bad and all everything that only you and God know about. Only then can the work be completed.

 

We are good at going to God with our problems, petitions and offerings but we often leave the ‘bed’ at home. We leave the painful, often embarrassing past at home, yet it is the very thing is could be causing a delay in our journey. I used to have a vegetable garden, and before planting my vegetables I thought I adequately prepared the ground. I turned the soil, added the fertilizer and then planted my seeds. My vegetables grew, but so did a lot of unwanted weeds and shrubs, and I found myself having to pull out all the unwanted shrubs every two to three days. Eventually I was so weary of doing this over and over because no matter how many times I pulled them out, they grew back. In desperation, I knew the only way to stop them from growing in between my vegetables was to get to the roots. The only problem was that I could not see the roots on the surface. In order to get to the roots, I had to get a spade and dig deeper into the ground. This was tiring and not pleasant, but it was the only way to get to the roots. Once I dig enough to see the roots, I began to pull them out. The roots however were so fixed in the ground, that I had to use a lot of force and strength in order to pull them out. This left me with very sore arms and shoulders. I even had to make sure I had the right shoes on, ones that would grip the ground firmly because my normal shoes would have caused my feet to slide as I tugged at those roots. As uncomfortable as the whole process was, it was worth it because only after that did the shrubs and weeds stop growing, and my vegetables could go uninhibited. In the same way, the offenses and difficulties of our past can cause us to adopt incorrect survival techniques which take root. And no matter how much we try to pray about the symptoms, unless we get to the root cause and uproot those things that we have hidden deep, we will never be able to fully operate in the calling that God has for us or receive the blessings that He has for us.

 

The short journey from the poolside to the temple was uncomfortable, because the man was carrying the very thing that once comforted him. In this instance, size mattered. The bigger the bed, the more uncomfortable the journey. Then to make matters worse, he encountered people who criticized him for carrying his bed on the Sabbath. They considered it unlawful to be healed on the Sabbath, and also for one to carry their bed because it would be classified as work. They actually placed more emphasis on the fact that the man was carrying his bed. Being healed is one thing, but once you take all your ‘stuff’ into God’s presence, that’s where you reach the point of no return and you can be completely free. It was good that he had his bed with him, because if he encountered critics on the way, he might have become afraid and emotional and ran back to the bed his left by the pool. If he didn’t make it back to the temple, he would have not been where Jesus would go find him.

1 comment

  • Thank you …a true eye opener for me

    Christo Esteves

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