Bill Johnson - How to Position Yourself for Breakthrough
When a breakthrough has been delayed, something we’ve prayed for, something we’ve fought for, and it’s not coming at the time we felt it should, we might feel frustrated. Not coming at the time we had a sense of promise for—when it’s delayed—what happens? Things that are within us rise to the surface that we didn’t know were in us. All kinds of accusations arise. What do we have here with Saul? «It’s your fault, Samuel, because you didn’t come when you said you’d come. Moses, we don’t know what’s become of him. Aaron, we don’t know if he’s still alive. We saw the fire, the lightning, everything on the mountain where Moses went up to meet with God. We can’t live here forever. Make us a god that will take us from here into the promised land.» What’s the whole point? The point is that stuff in the hearts of the children of Israel, as they came out of Egypt—a land that worshipped all kinds of false gods—was still in their hearts. It was the delay that brought it to the surface.
Now, why would God do that? If we know His heart is not to bring shame, guilt, or any of that stuff, which never helps at all, He exposes what’s in my heart so that I can confess. When I recognize what I didn’t see before and acknowledge it, confession means agreeing with God. I acknowledge—I now have the grace to forsake. He says to confess and forsake. God, in His mercy, allows a delay so that I can see something I couldn’t have seen without it. Then, I can agree with God, confess, forsake, and He strengthens the foundation upon which He can build something more significant than before. But if I continuously react to delay by blaming people, saying, «Well, it’s their fault. You didn’t come when you said you would,» the list goes on and on. God appeared to talk with Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit. He asked Adam, «What did you do?» He said, «It was the woman you gave me.» The Lord talked to Eve and said, «What did you do?» She replied, «It was the serpent.» There’s always a deflection of responsibility. By deflecting responsibility, we actually delay our own progress.
The crazy thing is we all hate delay, right? I like instant answers; I prefer the fastest response possible. I’m not a fan of delay. But what happens when I don’t take ownership of what God’s dealing with? I have added my delay to God’s delay. Brilliant! You cannot speed up God’s process, but you can slow it down. It’s an issue of lordship, did I ask you the question? Yeah, the $1,000. So, $1,000 today, $2,000 in 30 days. Because you know $2,000 is coming in 30 days, you can give thanks today, and it’s logical. Yeah, you can actually feel thankful today ahead of time. When He says to give thanks in everything, it’s logical from a kingdom perspective. From divine reasoning, well, of course, He’s in charge—He’s the Sovereign Lord. I’m walking in obedience. In 30 days, it’s going to be better than today. Of course, I’m going to give thanks today!
Both of the stories we’ve read have the fear of man at the heart of the issue, and the delays that were brought about—Moses’s delay, Samuel’s delay—actually exposed things in the hearts of God’s people that they wouldn’t have seen otherwise. This is the point I’m trying to make: when there’s a delay, anxiety acts like the cause of spiritual dementia. Anxiety makes us forget God’s promises and what He has done. We don’t recall the testimonies of the Lord as clearly; those things are dialed up when there’s a delay. Learning how to simplify during the delayed seasons is critical. I think being able to simplify my life instead of being spread too thin helps me keep anchored in what God has said. I return to the same verses, the same prayers, the same disciplines of coming before the Lord, confessing what He has promised, declaring what He has promised. That battle over the heart and mind is huge in seasons of delay. It may feel like there’s no progress, but the progress is the fact that I haven’t changed the subject. The progress is that I’ve stuck with what God has said.
The thing I’ve referenced probably a dozen times in the last few years is that the Lord constantly measures us. The testing of the Lord is not to find out if we do something wrong or whatever, but it’s to measure what we can carry. He’s looking to cause His glory to rest upon a people in such a significant way. However, the weightiness of God on a fractured foundation only increases brokenness—not the kind of brokenness that brings humility, but brokenness that leads to humiliation. There is a difference. The weightiness of God that He is looking to put upon people is meant for a glorious church. Jesus is returning for a bride whose body is in equal proportion to her head—not a jigsaw puzzle He has to put together in heaven. So there’s the constant measurement: «Yeah, but you didn’t come when you said you’d come.» The prophet said it would happen by the first of the month. «When I was fasting and praying, this is what I felt the Lord said,» and it still hasn’t happened. He sees in me what I don’t see in me; He sees the beauty I don’t see. He sees what needs to be changed. I may see this much; He sees this much.
Yes, in His kindness, He puts me in a situation so that I can see what He sees. Because if I see what He sees, I can agree with what He says. And if I agree with what He says and make confession, I have the grace to forsake. Amen. «All right, I get one more chance.» I want you to look at the next story with me. The next one is my favorite of the three; it’s in 1st Samuel 24. I admire David so much. This is talking about David before he becomes king. He has been prophesied over by Samuel to be the next king of Israel. He has been anointed—actually, an ordination, if you will—to be king. But from the time he was prophesied and anointed to be king to when he became king is a significant delay of about 13 years.
We have a guy—the women are singing songs, «Saul killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.» Everybody’s ready for this king to be king, but he’s in the position of being chased by Saul, who is jealous and wants to kill him. This is not a moment of rage; it becomes a lifestyle where, for 13 years, he attempts to kill this man, David. When you are being chased by a demonized, crazy man, it shapes your character. If there’s anything that David does not feel like in these moments when he is forced to live among the Philistines, the pronounced enemy of Israel, it’s a king. Here he is, hiding in the back of a cave. When we come to this scripture, it says in verse 3 of chapter 24, «So he came to the sheepfolds by the road where there was a cave, and Saul went in to attend to his needs. David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.» Then the men of David said to him, «This is the day which the Lord said to you: 'Behold, I will deliver your enemies into your hand that you may do to him as seems good to you.'» Notice the prophetic anointing coming upon all his men at this point; they began to prophesy and remind him of God’s promises about him being king.
David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. Now, it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he cut Saul’s robe, and he said to his men, «The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.» Here’s the situation: David goes over and just cuts off a piece of Saul’s robe and is convicted because he tarnished the reputation of his leader. There are times when God puts within our reach the ability to bring about the fulfillment of our own word. I have a piano. I like my piano; it is a testimony. It came from our last house. We sold our home furnished, and the piano was in it. When we bought the home I’m in now, I had no piano. I wanted one. I have credit cards, and they work really well. If I wanted to, it is within my power to get the piano.
Now, I don’t like waiting—100% true. Gabe is saying that’s true. I’m not sure I like his tone of voice! But there’s a choice: I can have a piano, or I can go through the process to obtain one as a provision of the Lord. Saving up money, not using credit cards, to where I now have a piano that is a testimony that reminds me, when I see it, of God’s nature, His promise, and His ability to provide. It now speaks to me beyond a material possession. I can have a material possession, or I can have a piece of my walk with Jesus represented by a physical item. It is often within our reach to fulfill our own destiny and prophetic word, but we have to add a lot of carnality and flesh to the fulfillment, which limits the measure of glory that God is going to put upon our lives or that situation.
Does that make any sense at all? I feel like I’m speaking in riddles; just bear with me. It is possible to bring about our own conclusion in certain parts of our lives, and David had the opportunity according to the prophets prophesying to him. «This is the opportunity that God has provided for you. This is the word of the Lord for you. You now get to do to your enemy—this demonized man who’s been trying to kill you—what you want, and he has no right to go against you, the one God has anointed to be king of Israel.» He processes through all of that, cuts off the corner of Saul’s robe, and then feels guilt because he tarnished the image of his leader. Regardless of how ungodly Saul is, until God removes him, he’s still his leader. He repents. Saul leaves the cave, and David calls out to him, showing him what he did. David refuses to bring about the fulfillment of his own promise.
That’s the temptation in delay: to use my ability to fulfill my need, my word, and my purpose instead of actually participating with God’s process in a kingdom fashion. God’s process is kind of like health food—it’s important, but it’s slow. I’ll be honest with you; I’d rather get medication. I eat healthy; I believe in a healthy lifestyle—exercise, the whole thing. But sometimes, I’d rather just get medication because it usually works within two or three days, while that vitamin will take six months to get into my system. I am so sorry for that last five minutes; that was as accurate as can be. Waiting on God is completely different than I thought it was.
I thought it was kind of sitting in a recliner, waiting for God to act—just expecting Him to show up and do something. I’ve been finding out in my experience, as I look back over my life’s history, that the times I’ve had breakthroughs and the times I haven’t, there have been these seasons. If I were not to read the scripture at all and were just to look at my history, I would conclude that God often doesn’t want to do something for me; He’s wanting to do something through me. He’s looking for me to act so that He joins His activity with mine. As I read the scripture, I find this to be a central theme in the subject of waiting on God. I didn’t know it and I don’t know why, but I didn’t know it experientially.
In Psalm 37, there are two words I want to highlight. I’m not going to take you there; you can read it on your own. One word in verse 9 describes waiting on God, and it’s very similar to the Biblical word hope. I don’t know if they’re related, but the definitions are similar. In verse 9, it talks about waiting on God, and that word describes great anticipation, great expectation. It would be as if you’re in a room with people and there’s a lot of conversation going on, and there’s someone you really want to hear from on the other side of the room. You try your best to shut down every other voice; you may lean, move seats, or cup your hand over your ear and lean in, because there’s anticipation that they will say something important for you.
Waiting on God is leaning into something normally thought of as just another mundane activity—just like conversation going on in the room—but there’s this refined focus. What I’m finding is that the words we find in scripture for waiting on God actually have much to do with refining our focus. The word I really want to talk to you about is found in verse 7, where it discusses waiting on God. Some words in the Bible, when translated, go back to the original language and are very similar, like the word for face; for example, the word presence is literally the word face. But some words are so diverse that you wonder how in the world they can translate this one word in so many different ways. This word waiting in verse 7 is one of those words, for example, that experts in the Hebrew language will look at and in certain settings translate it to whirl in the dance.
That’s not what I think of when I think about waiting on God; waiting on God is anything but whirling in the dance. Yet that is actually an interesting translation of this very wonderful and beautiful word—whirling in the dance. You won’t be seeing me whirl in the dance. I stopped whirling quite a few years ago for fear of losing body parts! That’s pretty much it. What I just showed you is as much as you’re ever going to get from me. I believe in the dance! And actually, the first time I danced before the Lord was a whirl. I didn’t know what to do; I saw it in the Bible, and I was embarrassed. I was the only one home, so I made sure the curtains were drawn, turned off the lights, because I didn’t even want to see me; I was embarrassed for me. But I saw it in the Bible, and I knew it was the appropriate thing to do.
So I leaped in the air, twisted, turned in the air, and landed, then did it again and again. The whirling? When you are spinning, you have one basic concern: where are you going to land? You don’t want to land on the dog, on shoes you forgot to put away, or on the coffee table. You want to land somewhere safe! So, there’s this focus that you have when whirling in the dance, which I believe is implied in this word—waiting on God. If there were ever another end of the spectrum that was extreme and diverse, it would be another way this word is translated. It’s actually translated to give birth.
Strange, right? I was privileged and blessed to be in the room when all three of my children were born. The last one, Leah, was born with about 20 people in the room. It was just a lot happening! So we had family—my wife’s parents were there, my mom came right at the last minute, and many others came. It was a wild scene! So I remember standing by Benny, and suddenly I felt this death grip on my left arm. She grabbed my arm with such intensity that I wondered if I would ever be able to use it again! I mean, why did she grab my arm? Because she was having a contraction. Writing a book is as close as I’ll ever get to giving birth.
I can only imagine that in giving birth to a child, you don’t care who the president is, what your next car payment is, or about the angry neighbor. None of those things matter; you’ve got one thing on your mind. If there were ever an illustration of intense focus, it would be giving birth. She grabbed my arm, and I ceased all conversation—I didn’t even end it. I was paying full attention, acknowledging the one I was so unworthy to be married to. Every time Benny had a child, I found myself quietly thankful that it was her and not me.
That doesn’t work, does it? Anyway, you get the point: whirling in the dance—you’ve got to land right! Giving birth—there’s just this intense focus. However, that word is used to describe waiting on God; it is not inactivity, nor is it involving myself with a hundred other distractions hoping God will somehow intervene. He can intervene whenever He wants to! What I’ve noticed is that He looks for my participation so that my feeble efforts are things He can breathe upon, making them supernaturally effective.
The verse I use over and over again comes from Proverbs, which states, «The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.» I have to do everything I know how to do to prepare the horse—for training, feeding, and everything else to make sure the stage is set for victory. But when it comes, it was only because God breathed on my efforts, making them supernaturally effective. I believe this will be key to the next season we’re entering: learning how to surrender natural effort and focus for Him to breathe on, to bring about the breakthroughs we’ve longed for.
One of my favorite individuals in church history is George Mueller. I love reading about him. He ran an orphanage in the UK and was an extraordinary man of faith. His prayer life was just bizarre and unusual. One day, while praying, the Lord gave him a word or vision about building a new facility on his grounds. He left his time of prayer and walked across the playground when a child approached him with a penny, saying, «This is for the new building.» Here’s the deal: when you’re waiting on God, the penny is like a million dollars because you’re not intimidated by its size or lack thereof. He took the penny literally and lifted it before the Lord, thanking Him for the confirmation.
I prefer confirmations of $100,000, you know, those kinds! But he took the penny and declared, «Thank you for the confirmation.» The deal is; when I’m biblically waiting on God, the size of the confirmation doesn’t matter because I’m leaning into expecting Him to do something, and the penny is enough. Jeremiah 29:11 is a pretty well-known verse: «For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.» It reveals the heart of God toward people. Many of us have memorized the verse, quoted it to each other, and used it in various contexts.
What adds flavor or context to this verse is that this decree was given to Israel while they were in captivity and not getting out. The Lord is targeting something in their internal world instead of redefining their external world. It’s easy to interpret how well we’re doing by our external circumstances instead of paying attention to what God is actually targeting. He’s looking to impact how we handle life in our internal world: self-talk, thoughts, declared words, motivations of heart, and clean conscience. This is what defines our welfare in an internal sense. It was always intended that we learn to live from the inside out.
One of the most interesting examples of this is Jesus in the Gospel of Mark: He’s in a life-threatening storm, and the disciples wake Him. They ask, «Don’t you care that we are perishing?» It’s interesting to ask the Savior of the world. When He gets up, He rebukes the wind and the waves—showing a spiritual force behind it. After He rebukes it, He declares peace, and the storm stops. Just think through this with me: He was sleeping in a storm not because He was exhausted but because the world He dwells in has no storms. He released into the natural external environment what He was already experiencing on the inside.
It was always intended that our personal victories and walk with the Lord would help reshape and influence the nature of the world we live in. Personal victories and triumphs are supposed to be measured outwardly. Interestingly, we have this story about one of our favorite guys in the Bible—Abraham, the father of faith. I remember taking three years of my life, reading and rereading Romans chapter 4 because it highlighted Abraham as the father of faith. Exposing myself to his lifestyle, I see that he believed God in the most impossible situations, and God considered him righteous because of it.
You see, he is so much called the father of faith that the place people went after they died, before they could go to heaven—the place of peace and rest—was actually called «Abraham’s bosom.» He made a profound impact in all of history. He is called righteous by the Lord, but his nephew Lot was also called righteous. It says in 2 Peter, «And righteous Lot was oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men.» We have a unique comparison between Abraham, who is righteous, and Lot, who is also called righteous. One affects their surroundings, while the other is affected by them. Lot is oppressed by sensory conduct, which says that because of what he saw and heard, it impacted what was going on inside him.
God designed us for this reason: Jesus revealed the kingdom of God is within you because the legal basis for all triumph and victory comes well before the external enemies of disease and all the stuff before they are defeated. It’s actually an internal triumph before the external triumph. Jesus stands in this place on the boat and speaks peace, and the life-threatening storm that was threatening their lives a moment ago sits down quietly. He got the triumph here first by sleeping in the life-threatening moment, then was positioned to put to death the life-threatening moment.
Let’s take a look at Jeremiah 29, starting with verse 4. I’ve already told you verse 11 is a great verse of promise, but it’s in the context of Israel not leaving their captivity. Keep that in mind. Verse 4: «Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives, beget sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there and not diminished.»
What is the Lord looking for in a place of captivity? We’re talking less than ideal circumstances that we are forced to live in. It’s not what we’ve been promised, what we’ve anticipated, or prayed for. It falls short of what we ache for or hunger for, and yet it’s a God-ordained season for whatever reason. In the season, we have responsibility. Here He says, «Buy houses, build houses, plant vineyards; do the stuff you’re supposed to do. Have kids, marry them off, thrive as a family.» He’s telling them to look above and beyond their circumstances, which would normally cut their vision in half.
Don’t allow it to cut your vision in half! You have something going on inside you—living conscious of a Father who delights in you and has extraordinary plans for you. That should help you redefine your captive season. Verse 7: «Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it. For in its peace, you will have peace.» I remember when the Lord first opened that verse up to me—it was many moons ago where we were living in a city. The word for peace, by the way, is one of the most robust words in the Bible. It means health, sound mind, and prosperity. If you’ve ever prayed for anything, you could find it in that word.
Once I saw this, I thought, «Let me use a different word: let me use prosperity for context.» Seek for the prosperity of the city you live in, because in their prosperity is your prosperity. Sometimes we have the idea that the Lord wants to bless the church and leave everyone else out. We don’t consider ourselves always to be a part of the city but separate. The Lord is trying to deal with that perspective because He’s reminding us that it’s His kindness that leads to repentance.
It’s the goodness of the Lord, His favor upon a city. Here is this charge: I remember us praying for the businesses around us and for them to prosper. I made friends with an owner who was not a believer, but I created dialogue to find out how they were doing so we would know how to pray. There comes a point where you adopt the city and take responsibility to believe that God wants the entire city to prosper. God is telling Israel to cause Babylon to prosper! Let your prayers ignite the favor of God upon the city and upon a culture. It’s amazing.
Verse 8: «For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.» The prophet is speaking, saying, «Listen, you’re going to spend your lifetime where you are. Adjust! Don’t listen to the prophets saying you’re leaving this land by Friday. Settle in and embrace the purpose of God to make Heaven on Earth inside the Babylonian system.» Yield to the word of the Lord to such a degree that you see it more than as something in the future.
He then warns them, saying, «Don’t buy into the dreams that you dream and the dreams that you cause to be dreamed.» What does this mean? We can have so much of an agenda in our hearts—one that doesn’t yield to the will and purpose of God—but have such a strong agenda in our hearts that we cause ourselves to dream things that affirm our desires. We can then quote those dreams as confirmation that God is leading us to do something that He’s not. It’s not an ungodly dream for them to be in the land of promise; it’s outside God’s purpose and timing, violating His heart and mind.
Verse 10: «Thus says the Lord, 'After 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you to cause you to return.'» Here’s the verse. «For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord—thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.'» You will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. «I will be found by you,» says the Lord.
Verse 11 again—New American Standard says, «For I know the plans that I have towards you, says the Lord, plans of peace, prosperity, health, of sound mind, to give you a future and a hope.» There’s something about discovering God’s heart for us that makes external problems become okay. It doesn’t mean that debt or affliction or an angry neighbor or an insufficient job doesn’t exist—it just means when you discover the heart of a perfect Father who thinks about you continuously, that awareness should pull us out of those moments of self-doubt.
Actually, last week I was somewhere in Asia, and I was considering the things I’ve been praying for through the years—that He directed me to pray that have not been answered. I’ve had unique encounters, different words, certain things the Lord has spoken to me, and things I’ve fasted about that He confirmed—but they still haven’t come about. It’s dangerous to feed your heart with what hasn’t happened, but it’s foolish not to bring what hasn’t happened before Him. He’s not afraid of discussing anything with you!
He’ll never shame you; He won’t punish you, and He doesn’t look at those moments to embarrass us. Instead, He wants to engage so that we become part of the process. He doesn’t speak in vain; He doesn’t give us flattering hopes and then dash our expectations. That’s not what He’s like; He’s a perfect Father. If He says He’s coming to your little league game, He’ll be there—He’s not one to promise one thing and do another. So, what are we engaged in?
We are engaged in a process where there’s spiritual conflict we don’t always see, perceive, or understand. Unless we know how to navigate it, sometimes it’s easy; sometimes it’s very difficult to navigate this journey where I don’t accuse God on the one hand, nor do I walk out of the situation with guilt and shame. If guilt and shame would bring us into great faith, how many of you think you’d have surpassed Wiggles by now? Exactly. It just doesn’t work. Guilt and shame give you a temporary feeling of spirituality because it mimics humility, but it’s not humility; it’s foolishness.
This violates the word of God over our lives. It felt good to say that. Guilt and shame don’t bring us into the Kingdom. Accusing God is just stupid. We don’t lack anything because He lacked provision in His covenant. Let me rephrase that: there’s no point of pain, loss, lack, or strain in our lives because His covenant was deficient. This was all His idea—to welcome us into a relationship where we would negotiate. I don’t mean negotiate in a business sense but in a relational sense where what we cry out for would manifest and be displayed on the earth, to edify us and to reveal His nature.
See, that’s the grand plan: answers to prayer reveal Him! Not praying until answers come robs the people around us from seeing what He’s like! Complacently tolerating the absence of breakthrough and answers to prayer violates our reason for existence. We are divine carriers of the actual nature of God manifested in the earth, and how are they to be manifested? One of the primary ways is through answers to prayer.
I have to hurry. Are you listening fast? If you’re listening fast, I’ll talk fast! All right. Wealth in the natural is often made through a really good, risky investment that explodes. You buy stocks for 50 cents, and three years later they sell for $100 a share. Wealth is created through specific breakthroughs. How is wealth protected through diversity? Many people get breakthroughs in their faith—seeing cancer disappear, blind eyes open—but they never diversify their prayer expressions. Answers in this area keep me encouraged while I’m battling for this other area.
Does that make sense? Diversifying our prayer focus is essential so that we’re always getting breakthroughs; we need multiple streams of answers. All right, are you with me? That’s the Lord’s design—to always have things we can feed on that keep us strengthened while facing the things where we’re still waiting for breakthrough. When we put all our eggs in one basket—the person saying, «If this healing would happen, then I would believe God for miracles,» it’s a poor way to advance in the Kingdom.
You’re putting everything in one area of breakthrough, while God may have a process of 10 things that need to happen first. Matthew 11 is actually what I was going to study today, but oh well. John the Baptist sent his servants to Jesus and asked Him, «Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?» John already knew by revelation who Jesus was. He pointed to Him and said, «Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.» He already knew who He was; he’d made the proclamation to the nation of Israel that He was the Lamb of God.
Now, he’s asking, «Are you really the one I thought you were?» Why? Because he’s in prison, and Jesus is the one who releases from prison—but he’s not being released. You can see the tension preparing the way for one who could bring release to him, but he’s not getting it. So, what does Jesus do? He tells John’s disciples, «Go tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.»
What’s the point? If you could picture this, it’s as if Jesus takes John’s face and says, «As long as you focus on what I haven’t done or what I’m not doing, you’re going to have a fight on your hands for your faith.» So, He turns his attention: «Look at what I’m doing. I’m healing the sick; I’m raising the dead. The lame are walking, the blind are seeing.» The best way to prepare ourselves for significant breakthroughs is to feed our hearts on what God is doing. But part of what I want to emphasize is that when you get alone with God, make sure to bring before Him the things where you’ve not been seeing breakthroughs.
Personally, I won’t just stand on this stage that represents encountering the Lord. I come in boldly before the Lord and say, «God, I’ve been praying for so many years on this. You woke me in the night; You spoke to me; there was an audible voice. I still don’t see what’s occurred here.» Engaging with God, I know the shortage or lack is not on His end of the equation. I need clarity of heart and mind so I can either be used by Him to bring change or know how to rest until there’s breakthrough.
You’ve got to help me! So, I come before the Lord engaging with Him; I will not leave that moment frustrated by the absence of an answer. In those moments, I purposefully give Him thanks for the answer beforehand. I live refreshed and filled with joy for the encounter with the Lord, realizing I actually get to partner with Him. I do not need to understand; I just need to remain engaged.
The enemy works hard to dislodge us, much like a dislocated shoulder. We are alive but are not as intimately connected to our purpose and function as we were designed to be. How does he do this? By bombarding us with memories and his version of a story—never having God at the center. When he parades a memory from your past, God is never at the center because when you see from God’s perspective, you’ll always see Him at the center, giving Him thanks that He was still in charge despite how things turned out differently than you thought.
If memories are not restored to us from a biblical perspective, we will always have things we’d rather not talk about, or we will talk about them and separate ourselves from an awareness of God’s heart and promises for us. The battle over memories may be one of the strongest battles a believer faces—not just what you remember but how you remember it. My heart this morning is that the Lord would enable us because we all have things that didn’t turn out the way we hoped. If we don’t get God’s perspective to see where He was in the situation, we’ll always have things we sweep under the carpet or let redefine how we view God, and we can’t afford either.
Psalm 78 is powerful. It’s a pretty long psalm, and I won’t have time to study it now, but it deals profoundly with the memory of what God has done. The first section is in verses 9 and 10, stating, «The sons of Ephraim were armed and carrying bows, yet they turned back in the day of battle because they forgot the works of the Lord.» You have to see the implication in this statement: this entire psalm charges the people of God to diligently remember what God has said and done. We are responsible to remember; it’s not a luxury item—it’s essential to help create awareness and momentum in our journey with the Lord.
If I forget these milestones, I don’t know where I’m going. This psalm states that without remembering God’s works, you will become cowardly when it comes to facing your personal assignment and reason for being. You’ll lower your expectations and personal confidence in God’s call on your life. It all comes from not remembering. Remembering isn’t about us; it’s entirely about Him—re-engaging with the God of the miraculous, the God who knows no impossibilities.
As you go through this psalm, there’s layer after layer to unpack. We get to a point around verse 48, where it states, «They tempted the Lord.» Nobody wants to tempt God! You don’t want to make yourself an enemy trying to entice Him to do evil. It mentions how they forgot His works and wonders. Something entered their hearts because they lost point of reference.
God was kind enough to set up markers along their journey with Him, but somehow, they allowed moments to rise up in their thinking and hearts that blurred their memories of what God had done for them. It left them clueless in moments of decision, moving into a position of tempting God, and it all came back to the fact that they forgot. They just forgot who He was, forgot what He was like.
I’m sure they, like everyone in this room, could recite the scripture, recite the story, and remind us they’ve seen this happen. I’ve seen colon cancer healed right here. Sometimes I walk around and ponder these things because I can’t forget them. But I can’t forget them because I’ve also prayed for cancer that wasn’t healed.
The story that challenges me is about Jesus healing the man laid at the pool of Bethesda. I love going to Israel, but my favorite place is the pool of Bethesda. It’s not crowded, very few people, and if you can imagine about a third or half the size of this stage, that’s the delivery area. Historians tell us that there could be 800, 900, or even 1,000 people surrounding this pool needing a miracle. The angel of the Lord stirs the waters, and the first person into the pool is healed.
If you don’t have an injury, you’re more likely to get into the water before the lame man that has been there for 38 years. Jesus walks up to the one who’s been there forever and heals him—a miraculous moment. What does the Bible talk about? It talks about the man that was healed. If that were to happen today, pastors, theologians, newspaper reporters, and TV interviewers would be interviewing the 900 people remaining around the pool who were not healed, asking, «How did it feel to have Jesus walk by you to heal someone else?»
So much of our theology today is based on what didn’t happen because it creates an excuse for unbelief. This story reveals not what God could do, but rather what one man can do when rightly related to God. While He is the Son of God, He functioned as the Son of Man and lived with limitations. The revelation is clear: when you walk in the Spirit with the Father, this is what can happen.
It’s an invitation! What’s often built around what didn’t happen in your experience? It’s not usually willful; it’s just part of life. I’ve experienced tragedy, crisis, and problems. It’s easy to build a case, and you could defend your right to unbelief in court. But the problem isn’t the strength or weakness of our faith; it’s the strength of our unbelief. Unbelief is partnership with the spirit realm.
In this case, it’s the city of Jericho, the first city Israel was to take in the promised land. Their assignment was to go into the land and march around the city six days, once a day, and on the 7th day, walk seven times and shout.
Here’s the point I want to make: there were no signs of progress on the first day. Around the walls, there was no cracking or crumbling of stone. On the second day, the third day, and the sixth day, there were no signs of a breakthrough. The breakthrough ended suddenly on the seventh day, and what I believe is that for many of you, today is the seventh day. Today is the seventh day; today is the day of breakthrough. You have been putting your life on the line; you’ve been living with risk; you’ve been putting yourself out there. We are surrounding you with the armies of God; we will stand with you and say this is your seventh day. This is the day of breakthrough; this is when the miracle happens in your family, in your body, in your business—whatever it might be. I believe that for many people, today is the seventh day.
So here’s the story with the children of Israel and Jericho. The other story that comes to mind is Naaman the leper. He was told by the prophet Elisha to go dip himself in the river seven times. How many understand that the first time he went in, he didn’t come out with one-seventh of his leprosy gone? The second time, two-sevenths; it didn’t gradually disappear. For six times in the water, there were no signs of a breakthrough whatsoever. But it was the seventh time that brought the breakthrough. And the Lord, I believe, is speaking to us about the endurance of heart, the endurance of faith, because there is an answer if we do not lose heart. There is breakthrough; it has been predetermined that breakthrough would come for every person, every situation, if we do not lose heart. That is the promise of the Lord for us.
Here’s where the story begins: verse one, chapter 6. Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out and none came in. I love this: the Lord said to Joshua, «See, I have given you Jericho into your hand, its king, and its mighty men of valor.» Let’s stop right there. Do any of you realize that God looks at a problem completely differently than we do? I love what He said to Gideon. Gideon was scared to death; he was afraid. He constantly wanted this confirmed and that confirmed, and he struggled with identity and assignment. And the Lord came to him one day and said, «Gideon, this is after the fleece. If you’re afraid, go down into the enemy’s camp, and I’ll speak to you there.» That’s funny—that’s seriously funny. God says, «If you’re afraid, go right into the camp of the people you’re afraid of because I’m going to speak to you there.» In the next scene, Gideon is in the enemy’s camp. He comes down at night. So what does that tell us? He was afraid. God said, «If you’re afraid,» and the next thing, Gideon is there and he listens to two people talking in a tent. One guy says, «Man, I had this dream. This barley loaf rolled down the hill,» and the other guy interprets the dream. That barley loaf was none other than Gideon and the armies of Israel, and he starts prophesying about their own demise because of this dream. Gideon is sitting there in the enemy’s camp getting encouraged.
So what do we have here? We’ve got Jericho all locked up. The king is in there, the armies are in there; they are all ready to protect their territory. And God says, «See, they’re all locked up. That should be a sign to you.» How is that a sign? It would be easier if the doors were open; it would be easier if the armies were out traveling somewhere. That would be a sign: the armies aren’t even home; that would be a sign if everybody’s dead. But they are all ready to fight. How is that a sign? You have to see a problem the way God sees a problem. He says, «Joshua, look! That’s a sign to you; they’re yours!» And Joshua goes, «All right, I see it.»
Then He gives the instruction in verse three: «You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you will go all around the city once, and this you’ll do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram’s horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And it will come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people will shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up—every man straight before him.»
Down to verse 10, Joshua commanded the people, saying, «You shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I say to you, 'Shout! ' Then you will shout.» So here’s this picture: they walked around in absolute silence for six days. Just to remind you, there were no beginnings of a miracle yet; they were just walking in silence. Why in silence? Because their conversation kept them out of the Promised Land 40 years earlier, right? Why do you think the Lord made John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, mute throughout his nine months of pregnancy? I don’t think He wanted him to mess up the miracle. I wonder how many times a miracle seed has been conceived and aborted through our conversation. They marched around for six days, and on the seventh day, they went around seven times. Then they lifted a shout, and when they lifted the shout, it’s interesting—their first confession in their obedience was a shout of praise and victory.
In fact, I think most of our staff has been feeling this. First of all, we’re impressed—impressed with how people live, impressed with how people lay themselves on the line, impressed with people who are in great personal need, and the extreme measures they go through to give or to serve. It’s something that we believe in; we live it ourselves. But it’s always shocking when we see it spread. You know, people embracing this as a lifestyle. I see people starting businesses, looking for employment, and doing all these different things to get breakthrough. I have felt the conviction this week that by not talking about it, by not rallying around these people to pray, we intentionally could make the mistake that David did, although his was intentional, of putting somebody on the front lines of battle and leaving them there. I want you to succeed. Your capacity to dream is in part what reveals the nature of God to our city. Once you stop dreaming, you start dying. You were created to dream; you were created to think. Freedom to think out of your own personal liberty to think and to dream, to take the risks that are necessary. I don’t want to be guilty of standing back at a distance, saying, «Good luck!» On somewhat of a regular basis, we bring up financial situations every once in a while, and we’ll just surround people and pray for jobs or whatever, and I believe in that. But to me, it has to do with finances, ministry, relationships, and health—those four aspects.
I want to see those who have taken the greatest risks or are taking any risk to be surrounded by fellow soldiers in an army that surrounds them and says, «You’re not in this by yourself; we are here together because God has promised breakthrough. He is the God of the breakthrough.» And I feel like I just need to declare today is the seventh day; today is the seventh day.