I have always been fascinated by God’s words to the Israelites concerning the process by which He would empower them to dispossess the promised land of the nations that were there:
Deuteronomy 7:21-22 (VOICE) So don’t be so terrified of these other nations—the Eternal your God is with you. He’s a great and awesome God! But He will drive out these nations ahead of you only little by little. You won’t be able to finish them off all at once because if you did, the wild animals would reproduce rapidly in the empty land and that would be dangerous.
These verses encourage me to manage my expectations when it comes to the process of breakthrough. If Christ’s work was finished on the Cross and liberty in the Spirit is available now, then why is it such a process to walk in that freedom?
There’s a saying that goes, “The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one.” I believe this saying can aptly be applied to the concept of spiritual breakthrough as well. The moment of our breakthrough isn’t when we finally get off the merry-go-round of our cycle of pain. It isn’t when we stop having panic attacks, experiencing those outbursts of anger, or when we stop having to scrape dollars together to make ends meet.
Our breakthrough happens the moment God shines the light of understanding upon our lives and reveals the root of each cycle itself. Now we may feel exposed and defeated when finally see what has kept us bound, restricted, and feeling powerless. And we may feel overwhelmed and intimated thinking of the internal battles we will face in the days ahead to dispossess the resident lies, trauma, and shame.
However, it’s no small miracle to be able to recognize limiting thought patterns and wrong beliefs. We can’t address the things that we can’t even see. And there is no need to think that we have to fight these battles in our own strength. Ultimately, each battle has already been won through the Cross. God has gone before us!
Truly, the moment of our breakthrough is the place where we choose to follow God into a new area of our inner promised land. Each day becomes an opportunity to receive new truths from His Spirit and have our minds renewed. Instead of walking in circles in the wilderness, we can open our hearts to learn a new way of being and experience abundant life.
[ “The Moment of Breakthrough” originally posted on Waiting in the Wings, reposted in its entirety with permission.]