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Part 12 of 19
CTC Volume Two - The Principle of Breakthrough
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We're in a series called CTC Volume Two, where keys represent the principles of God that unlock the promises of God. Often we want to unlock God's promise of healing, but we must first understand what key or principle we need to apply to experience that promise.
Each week we review these principles because sometimes your greatest breakthrough isn't in learning something new—it's in remembering something old. You don't know what key you'll need until God puts you in the right room.
Today we're introducing a new key—the principle of breakthrough—that will help you go from a breakdown to a breakthrough and help you advance if you feel stuck.
True breakthrough is not when you go to the next level, but when God shows you why you are stuck on your now level. Some of us shout because God helped us get out of something bad. But the real victory is when God shows us why we kept staying in it.
Do we have anybody who can shout not just because God helped you get out of a bad relationship, but because God showed you why you kept picking bad relationships? Breakthrough isn't just about getting out—it's about God showing you why you first got in it. It's a sad thing for God to give you a breakthrough and you walk right back into what he brought you out of.
You cannot have breakthrough without first overcoming a battle. Breakthrough is for fighters. This message isn't for the sweet saints alone—it's for the savage saints who say, "God, I love you, but I'm a little bit of lion and a little bit of lamb."
Jesus was both lion and lamb: tough enough to die, tender enough to cry. Man enough to feel it, but God enough to heal it. The lamb died on the cross, but the lion came out of the grave. I didn't come to preach just to the lamb in you—I came to wake up the lion in you. There's a part of you that's been sleeping in the grave that God is saying, "I need you to come out roaring."
Some of you feel like you're on the verge of a breakdown. Sometimes your breakthrough is the closest in a breakdown. Sometimes you have to come to the end of yourself to get to the beginning of God.
We see this in the life of Peter. Jesus literally screams, "Simon, Simon." Whenever God shouts someone's name twice in scripture, it's emphatic—he's trying to get your attention.
Jesus looks at Peter and calls him "Simon"—his old name—not the new name Jesus had given him. Jesus has to call him by his old nature to get his attention because he's saying, "You're not acting like the person that I called you to be. So I'm going to call you by something that you were before you met me."
Do we have anybody in the room today who can say there's a version of you in you that you don't want to see? Sometimes the saved me and the sick me are fighting to become the best version.
Peter is having an identity crisis and doesn't even know it. Many of us are having an identity crisis and don't even know it. We think we're having relationship problems, but what if your relationship problems are really identity problems? You think you're having money problems, but what if they're not money problems—they're identity problems?
You will make your choices based off of the identity that you embrace. Some of us made choices and looked back saying, "I don't know what got into me." That wasn't the new you—that was the old you.
Be careful when you embrace false identities because old identities will birth old issues. Some of the attacks on your life aren't about who God called you to be—they're about you holding onto who you used to be. Because you haven't let go of your old nature, that ex keeps popping up.
Impostor syndrome is when we struggle to accept new seasons because of what we did in old seasons. It's when you can be winning on the outside but worrying on the inside. You can be successful externally but struggling internally, blessed on the outside but broken on the inside.
Impostor syndrome is the fear of being seen. You want people to see your good self but fear them seeing your weaknesses, struggles, and vulnerabilities. When God finally favors you, you feel like God's favor is a scam. When somebody shows you love, you reject it because you've gotten so used to hate. You actually end up self-sabotaging relationships because you fear rejection, so you reject those who've already accepted you.
God blesses you with a new opportunity, and you walk yourself out of it because you don't think you deserve it. Peter struggled with this impostor syndrome throughout his life. When Jesus was about to go to the cross, Peter didn't show up—Simon did. He pulled out a switchblade and cut a man's ear off. That was the impostor. And later, he denied Jesus three times: "I don't know him. He's got nothing to do with me."
We've all struggled with the impostor in certain situations and seasons where something felt too good to be true, so we began to question ourselves. It's not that you're questioning God—you're really questioning you.
"Satan demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I pray for you." (Luke 22:31-32)
Jesus tells Peter that Satan is begging for permission to sift him like wheat. Notice the difference between two words: sifting and shifting.
You need to be surrounded by the right people who will pray for you when the devil wants to sift you—so you won't be exposed, but you'll be elevated. God won't allow the devil to sift you. God is getting ready to shift you. He's about to shift your mind, shift your heart, shift your household.
The devil is demanding permission to sift you. He can't even just come attack you without permission. And God won't give permission for an attack on your life if he didn't put something in you with the ability to overcome it.
Jesus responds to this threat not by fighting with words, will, or skill—he fought with prayer. What if you are one prayer away from a breakthrough? What if what you've been believing God for is just one person praying the right prayer away?
One of the primary tools God has established to determine how much he does in our life is conditioned by the absence or presence of prayer. How much he does in your life is based on whether you pray or not.
"You desire but do not have. You do not have because you do not ask. When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives." (James 4:2-3)
God is saying: he wants to bless you, but you never came to him for the blessing. He wants to favor you, but you never asked for it. He wants to heal you, but you never asked for it. Or you asked with the wrong motives.
In this season, I'm praying: "God, don't just help me pray the right prayer. Give me the right heart when I'm praying."
Prayer is not just communication with God—it's relational communication with God. Even the devil talks to God. We see Satan demanding permission in our text. But prayer is about relationship.
The goal of prayer is to draw heaven into history. When you look back on your life, do you see the mark of heaven anywhere? If you don't see it, maybe it's because you or somebody you trusted to intercede for you was not praying.
Some things can be revealed to you in prayer that won't be revealed to you in church. You got married and it fell apart—did you pray before and during? You got a job and lost it—what did you pray? Some revelations only come through prayer.
Prayer does not get God to do something he doesn't want to do. Prayer gives us access to what God already wants to do for us, but requires participation from us. It's hard to pray when you don't know his will. It's a sad thing to have a full prayer life with no word in your heart—because you might be praying witchcraft prayers.
What are witchcraft prayers? Prayers that seek to manipulate your will instead of God's will. You're not really praying—you're manipulating. Have you ever had the courage to ask someone, "Well, do you believe that's God's will?" before you pray for something?
"Before you call, I will answer." (Isaiah 65:24)
Before you even prayed, God already answered the prayer. We have many busy Christians with empty prayer lives. God is saying in heaven: before you even prayed, I already answered.
While you're trying to figure it out, he already worked it out. Stop worrying and praying—he already answered. You're stressing and praying—he already answered. You're in fear—get in faith and pray—he already answered.
I believe some of you in this room are trying to figure out how God is going to work it out. God is saying, "No, I already know your beginning from your end and your end from your beginning. I just need you to ask me for it. I already answered the prayer. You won't lose your mind—he already answered that. You won't lose your joy—he already answered that."
Stop praying for stuff you already have and put some faith on what you don't have.
Jesus isn't worried about the attack. He says, "I know you're about to be under attack. Satan himself is about to prepare to sift you like wheat. Here's why I'm not worried—I already prayed. And because I have confidence in my prayer, I know the Father already answered my prayer."
We know Simon ends up getting sifted, but the prayer brought him right back to where he was preaching on Pentecost.
Do we have anybody in the room who can say it wasn't some of their own prayers, but they thank God they had a praying mama, a praying grandmama, and if it weren't for them praying, they wouldn't be here today? It's already handled.
"I have prayed for you... that your faith won't fail." (Luke 22:32)
Jesus prayed that Peter's faith won't fail—not that the results won't fail, not that the relationship won't fail, not that the business won't fail, not that certain surgeries won't fail. He prayed that your faith won't fail.
Because sometimes God uses failure as the doorway to greater faith. Jesus died on the cross—the greatest picture of failure we can imagine. But that's not how the story ends. He turned what was failure to man into resurrection. On the third day, we saw faith can make stuff live that's supposed to die.
Jesus didn't pray and promise that stuff won't fail. He prayed that your faith won't fail. Maybe he said this because he knew we would go through stuff that will test our faith.
Jesus prayed for Peter to break through Simon. In other words, who God called you to be needs to break through who you used to be. Sometimes your greatest enemy is not the enemy, but your inner self. The Holy Spirit is saying, "I need to break through who you used to be on the inside so you can begin to experience my promises on the outside."
Everything that's for you must be fought for. Even though it's already yours, that does not mean you won't have to fight for it. The healing is already yours, but will you fight for it? The blessing is already yours.
God told Moses, "Take my people from Egypt into the promised land that I've already gave you." The problem is, the land was already occupied. So they had to go to a land that was theirs, but they still had to fight for it. Some of you went to see what God showed you that you can have, but somebody already had it. At some point, you're going to have to realize that even though they have it now, they don't know what type of fight they're about to be in for God to take what's already mine.
The greater the anointing, the greater the attacks. You've been under attack since you were a child. It seems like you always have to fight for what comes easy to others. Because sometimes where you are attacked the most is where you're anointed the most. The enemy is trying to keep you from seeing where your oil is.
We often focus on the attack while overlooking the anointing. Everybody wants the anointing but doesn't want to be attacked. Everybody wants to be anointed but doesn't want the adversity. David didn't know he was a giant killer until a giant showed up. Nehemiah did not know he was a builder until a wall broke down. Moses did not know he was a deliverer until a people were caught up in bondage.
You will only go as far as you're willing to fight. I think back on certain seasons of my life and how far I would have gone if I didn't stop fighting. I had a coach in college, Mickey Andrews, who was one of the meanest people you'll ever meet. But he knew how to get the best out of you.
We used to do something after practice called gassers—running across the field back and forth in an impossible time at a certain fast pace. My first year there, I ran that gasser and felt something lock up. I remember running and it locked up, and I got on the line for the next one. He blew the whistle, and I just fell. He came screaming at me, "Get up! You ain't at your daddy's house. You in my house now. You going to get up and you going to finish."
The whole time I'm running, he's screaming, "Fight! Stop feeling sorry for yourself! Fight! Start picking up my legs! Fight!" Before I knew it, I was running faster and making the times before the time was even up. He helped me to see there was an ability in me to do what I didn't even know I could do myself until I got the right voice.
Your breakthrough is not tied to the strength of your hands, but the sensitivity of your ear. There are three skills that help us go from breakdown to breakthrough, and it's not about working harder. It's about hearing higher.
While my coach was saying "fight," everything in me was saying "quit." But whose voice would I listen to? Many of us can't hear right because a sick heart will always have selective hearing. Breakthrough is an inside job. What if you have the right voice speaking to you, but your heart is so bitter and broken that you're hearing what you want to hear and ignoring what you need to hear? What if your breakthrough has already been given to you, but you started doing what you want to do, and you need to go back and pay attention to what God already told you to do?
Every voice doesn't carry the same weight. It hits different when your leader says something—it's weightier when the people you have given permission to speak and pour into your life say something. I don't put them on the same scale as my friends. God has assigned them to be watchmen over my soul. They'll help you see what you can't see by yourself.
Breakthrough is also determined by the condition of your eyes. You can't be who you need to be in the future if you keep looking at who you used to be in the past. The children of Israel were in the wilderness, but their eyes were back in Egypt. You may be in a new relationship, but your eyes or ears are back in that old one. You may be in a new season, but what are you looking at?
What you look to becomes what you live for. When you're at your best, who are you looking to? What did you look at the most? Was it social media? Was it your assignment? Was it distractions? Was it God? You will become like what you behold. Some of us, our problem is not our faith. The problem is our focus.
You know how to turn on your faith in big moments. But here's the problem: once the big moment is gone and you have nothing that's giving you a thrill, your focus begins to leak. And now your faith gets weak because your focus is leaking. You can have faith to get something new, but you lack the focus to build what you already have. You have faith to get started, but do you have the focus to stick with it?
Simon meant inconsistent and unsteady. Peter meant rock and solid. He needed some consistency. In order to fix your life, oftentimes you need to fix your eyes.
We walk by faith, not by sight. Faith gives you a new set of eyes. Walking literally means decisions. In other words, faith gives you a new set of eyes to make better decisions.
When everybody else is afraid on the boat, faith says step out the boat and walk on water. When everybody else is afraid of a giant and running in the wrong direction, faith says you can take your rag and your rock and you can attack this giant and knock this giant down. I'm choosing faith over facts. God, fix my eyes so I can see what you see.
God wants to give some of you your faith back tonight. You're going to leave out of this message today and you're going to look at an old thing in a new way. You don't always need something new to experience something new.
Divorce is at an all-time high because people are looking for a new result when sometimes God says, "No, if you allow me to break through you and you get out of your own way, I'll give you a new marriage with the same person."
Breakthrough is not determined by the strength of your hands, but the sensitivity of your ears, by the condition of your eyes.
