| Tasting Breakthrough |
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 Sixteen years earlier, in 1991, God spoke to me powerfully through a story told in 2 Samuel 5:17-20:
"When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek out David; and when David heard of it, he went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines came and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim. Then David inquired of the LORD, saying, 'Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You give them into my hand?' And the LORD said to David, 'Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.' So David came to Baal-perazim and defeated them there; and he said, 'The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters.' Therefore he named that place Baal-perazim" (NASU).
Reading this story, I longed to know God as Lord of Breakthrough. I studied everything I could find in Scripture about breakthrough. I wrote people serving God all over the world and asked them to send me their stories, telling of times they had seen God accomplishing powerful acts of breakthrough.
As the stories came in, I grew more and more disappointed. Almost none showed God bursting through impossible walls, as flood waters burst through a dam. Certainly, God accomplishes quiet breakthroughs. Certainly, He is accomplishing more than we can ask or imagine in ways so subtle we may easily overlook them. But surely in our day He also wants to demonstrate Himself powerfully, visibly, as Lord of Breakthrough.
September 2-10, 1991, I planned to take a mission trip to Moscow and Yalta in the Soviet Union. Two weeks before we were scheduled to leave, hard-line Communist leaders staged a coup. Soviet president Gorbachev was "detained" in Yalta. Tanks rolled through Moscow's streets. As the first shots were fired, three young men died. It looked like the start of a long, bloody war.
Then, two days after it began, the coup unraveled. Gorbachev was released. The hard-liners fled. September 5, I stood on a box of Bibles in Red Square, outside the Soviet parliament building. Speaking through a translator, I told those who gathered that Jesus Christ opens doors no one can shut. The next day, the Soviet parliament voted to dissolve the Soviet Union. |
| Training Regimen |
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In 1991, I saw the Lord of Breakthrough splinter a door of iron. Stories of our trip to Moscow and Yalta filled a book I wrote, titled When Walls Come Tumbling Down.
Back home, however, I continued to live in the same pattern as previously. I believed Him Lord of Breakthrough. I knew the scriptural principles for cooperating with Him. I longed to see Him smashing impenetrable walls and flooding impossible places for the honor of His Name - but rarely witnessed such wonders.
Now I realize: Those 16 years, God trained me - buffeting, pummeling, purifying, enlightening - to wean me from entanglements that blocked breakthrough. He showed me what must change for us, His people, to cry with David, "The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like the breakthrough of waters!"
This intense regimen culminated in August 2007 during a mission trip to south Asia with four other women. |
| Strangely Familiar |
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In the first Asian country where our team taught, I expected to find poverty, heat, humidity, mosquitoes, shrines to many gods, radically different dress and language, foods we could not eat and water we could not drink. On arriving, we experienced all the above, throwing us repeatedly into off-the-charts sensory overload. Still, I expected the unfamiliar.
I did not expect to find something eerily familiar in the middle of it. I did not expect to find a Western religious structure dominating the segment of Christianity into which we stepped. Yet, an indigenous mission, highly dependent on Western funding, has largely adopted methods I know all too well. The leaders sincerely want to make a difference for Christ in their culture, but they do not see that the structures they're erecting will sabotage the breakthroughs they're seeking.
For example, this mission is seeking to promote a "women's movement" affirming the role of women in God's kingdom. What a wonderful, worthwhile aim! Their method? Build an auxiliary organization.
The 1,300 women who gathered for the conference were urged - not to listen to God and follow Him fully - but to join this organization. Those who did join signed cards and pledged aloud an oath to the organization. Affirmation, applause and status hinged on commitment to the organization: joining it, working to help fulfill its goals and (for a chosen few) serving as its officers. |
| Pressing In |
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While preparing stateside to teach the women, I knew God wanted me to focus on this theme: "Love Jesus. Follow Jesus. Don't confuse allegiance to Jesus with allegiance to things connected with Jesus. If you know Him as Lord, you can hear His voice. He is speaking to you. Listen to Him. Follow Him."
I had questioned God repeatedly. "Lord, is this the most relevant message for these women? Surely they have greater needs: survival, family crises and oppression by other religions." Once onsite, I saw women hungering for freedom in Christ yet, in their desperation, stepping out of one bondage into another.
That first week as we taught, my roommate Amy and I sounded basically the same call in different ways. All week, it seemed our words hit a wall and slid down. We trusted that God was using our obedience to accomplish things we could not see. In our room, we cried out to Him in behalf of the women. During conference sessions, as they sang heartily in a language we did not know, Amy and I prayed aloud, "Lord, we do not come into alignment with this structure. Jesus Christ, You alone are Lord." |
| Spirit Flood |
| The second week, as we moved out of the first country and into the land torn by war, our whole team realized God was on the move. He was giving us new messages. He was requiring us to be vulnerable. The messages fit together like pieces of a puzzle, revealing the face of Christ.
The organization's leader changed her message that week to focus, not on the organization, but on Christ. Even though she sometimes took offense when Amy and I called the women to follow Christ fully, she rearranged the teaching schedule that week to make sure our messages were included.
The second evening of the conference, I preached God as Lord of Breakthrough. Recounting David's experience in 2 Samuel 5:17-20, I pointed out, "When David needed a breakthrough, he ran to God and, in effect, asked these questions: 'What do You want me to do? What do You want to do?'" I urged the ladies to seek breakthrough for their nation by asking the same two questions, listening for God's answers and obeying Him.
I also explained, "When people praying for nations have asked God, 'What do You want us to do?' God has often responded by teaching a kind of repentance and forgiveness we may not have considered. He tells us to repent, not only for our personal sins, but in behalf of our whole people group. He asks us to forgive, not just individuals, but whole groups."
Then, Amy and I demonstrated this kind of repentance and forgiveness. Amy is Chickasaw Indian. Having gotten her permission earlier that day, I called her to stand beside me. Kneeling, I asked her forgiveness for sins that my people, white Americans, have committed against Native Americans. Specifically, I repented for our wantonly taking their lands, breaking hundreds of treaties and committing many murders.
As I said these things - not as a drama or illustration, but genuinely repenting - Amy began to weep. When she did, something broke. Instantly, the Spirit of God flooded that room.
As Amy took her seat behind me, God's Presence hovered. Standing, I invited the women to publicly repent and forgive the grievous wrongs of their two warring peoples. At that moment, the organization's leader jumped to her feet, yelling frantically, "She cannot say that!"
Amy began to pray aloud against fear. The first interpreter, through tears, translated what I said. The second interpreter followed. Instantly, a woman sitting about halfway back stood and walked forward weeping. As she began repenting and forgiving publicly in behalf of her people, a woman from the other people group came forward, also weeping, to reciprocate. Afterward, two more women did the same.
Then, I invited everyone, "Ask Jesus, 'What do You want me to do? What do You want to do?' As He answers, minister to one another in whatever ways He says." The women sat, praying and listening for the Lord. The leader who had yelled out a few minutes earlier sent my team members to stand quietly around the edges of the room, praying.
Slowly, women began to rise and go to one another, repenting, forgiving, encouraging, comforting. Some prayed in pairs and small groups. Some stood with uplifted arms, crying out to the Lord. With great freedom, the Lord of Breakthrough expressed His heart to the women. They responded like a Bride following her Bridegroom's lead in a wedding dance.
Then the leader who had yelled out surprised us again. She announced that all the pastors who had brought the women had been listening in a back room. They wanted to come forward, to repent and cry out to God on behalf of the nation. Ten or 12 men lined up across the front of the room and added their prayers to the cries going up to God.
When the room grew quiet again at last, I said, "This needs to happen across this nation." As one person, the assembly gave a great shout. The sound rang out through the open windows across a war-torn land. |
| Sneak Preview |
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In south Asia, God astonished me with a sneak preview of the new season ahead. He is revealing Himself as Lord of Breakthrough - not just in one nation, not just for one day. He is saying to His people: "Your commitment to things connected with Christ has withheld the very breakthroughs you've longed to see."
We can say we place our hope in Christ alone. We can say we give our loyalty to Christ alone. But He who knows our hearts is exposing the rival loyalties we do not realize we have. He is making it impossible for us to continue halting between two opinions.
This year, expect the Lord Jesus to put you in positions where, to choose the safe path, the familiar path, will mean to reject Him - and to follow Him, you will have to do what someone or something connected with Christ forbids you to do.
Follow HIM, and He WILL break through. | |
Deborah P. Brunt