3 Steps to a Breakthrough

At some point in our lives, we will go through slumps on the road and long seasons of dryness. Every follower of Christ will face a time in the wilderness when trials come or when suffering is apparent. The situations that we all face in life will have the chance to knock us down and keep us on the ground.

When most Christians come to this point of their lives, they either battle it out and rise or they fall even harder and stay there. The Latter is most true of what we see today in the lives of Christ-followers.

What if there was another way to break out of the seemingly bleak circumstances around us? Given the chance to rise up after falling into temptation, stumbling into sin, or going through a tough season of trials or waiting, will you take it?

Will you be able to take a step towards a breakthrough when you see it? The truth is, we often wait for a breakthrough to happen without even preparing for one! We just coast through the Christian journey without even considering that a breakthrough has much to do with how we respond to our situations than it does with the actual circumstance.

From Scripture we see the truth and wisdom of how to step up for a breakthrough in our own Christian lives. Take note, it is not a cookie-cutter method for everyone but these principles will surely be helpful to anyone in need of a spiritual boost in their faith.

Here are three steps towards your own personal breakthrough:

1. Stepping into Divine Power

2 Peter 1: 3 exhorts us in this truth, “His DIVINE POWER has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (emphasis mine). The first thing we have to realize is that we’ve been granted a power that’s beyond us for the actual breakthrough. We won’t churn it out or force it with our own human strength. The only source of a true breakthrough is when it comes directly from the God who provides the strength, endurance, and perseverance to do so.

Not only that, in the same chapter in verses 5-8, it continues:

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

2. Stepping Up for a Breakthrough

We not only have to depend on God’s divine power but in conjunction with that, we also have to do our part in making sure that we are growing in the areas mentioned above. We need to “make every effort” possible in stepping up for a breakthrough.

In other words, we can always be waiting on God for a breakthrough but we must remember to do our part in increasing these qualities in us so that when the time comes for the breakthrough, we would have best learned our lessons well.

3. Keeping in step with the Spirit

 “If we live by the Spirit, let us also KEEP IN STEP with the Spirit” (emphasis mine) Galatians 5: 25. The true importance of a breakthrough is not when one gets what he or she has been praying for or not even with a convergence of circumstances. It is considered a breakthrough when one keeps in step with the Holy Spirit.

When we depend on God and commune with His Spirit in us, it makes any situation—no matter how desperate or dark—seem worthwhile. Why? The Spirit of God is the one who brings breakthrough in our lives by the way we respond to what happens to us or what doesn’t happen to us. This is how we keep our head above the waters and have our hope intact.

If you are in a season of darkness, desperation, dryness, or delay, don’t worry and take heart, for your God gives you the unlimited source of divine power, the chance to exert effort into your character, and guides you personally with His Holy Spirit in whatever situation you find yourself in.

Breakthrough might just be around the corner and you best get ready for it.

Cannibal and Vampire: The Toughest Sermon of Jesus

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

John 6:51 ESV

There are certain true stories of survival that have been widespread across our time; stories of people surviving the wilderness or living through an airplane crash—going through the elements in order to survive.

Some of these stories include people, having the will to survive, eating the actual flesh of their friends in order to have the strength to live on and be rescued amidst their dire situation. It’s a total tragedy when we hear of such things because although the survivor lived, what he or she had to do in order to survive are to say the least—taboo.

Jesus, after teaching and preaching for days, came to a crucial point in his short three-year ministry on earth. At this time in his mission, he had been amassing a widespread following and many people were actually witnessing his power and hearing his mighty words. He was quite popular in this time.

Add to that the miracle that he just performed: multiplying five barley loaves and two fish from a kid to feed over a multitude of crowds with five thousand men (scholars say up to as much as 15,000-20,000 people all in all, including women and children).

At the peak of this act and at the same time, having what most would consider “ministry success” due to so many followers, Jesus taught the unthinkable. He preached a message that would not only shock his audience but would actually drive them away.

It was at this point that Jesus—knowing the heart of man—preached one of the toughest sermons and people did not take it well. How’s that for “seeker-sensitivity”?

Jesus said this in John 6:47-51,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

To cap it all off, Jesus’ closing action-point to his sermon was this line: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:55-58)

In other words: Eat my flesh and drink my blood, then you shall live eternally.

What did you just say, Jesus?

One can imagine the public outcry of such a message like this. People would have been shocked into disbelief, others would have all the more doubted, and most of Jesus’ antagonists would lay claim to it as more proof that he was indeed a blasphemer and heretic. This Rabbi (teacher) who was so radical in his teaching and his actions was now telling people to be cannibals and to eat his very own flesh and drink his very own blood. Talk about "being radical"; as one can imagine, it’s a gruesome picture to even think of or begin to imagine.

Even his own disciples had this to say: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”

And we read in the next verses that many turned away from Jesus; verse 66 describes: "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him."

What made Jesus’ teaching so hard to swallow? Was it because of the explicit nature of the cannibalistic act of consuming someone else’s flesh? Was it the vampiric act of drinking the blood (considered the life source) of your friend?

What made this sermon hard to grasp is because of the context: right at this time, the people had been clamouring for more of the free stuff (e.g. the free bread that never runs out, or the unli-fish that they can eat). They were following Jesus Christ for all the wrong reasons: they wanted more for themselves, what they could have and what they could live on.

Instead of seeing the true essence of Jesus’ message--that the only way to live, is to live in Christ--like their forefathers in the desert, they forsook the manna from heaven that God so richly and abundantly provided and instead craved quail and meat.

If they only saw the Messiah who has come from heaven and is now in their midst, they would have understood what he came for and what he was meant to do: die on the Cross to pay the penalty for their sins. Jesus was to offer his broken body and shed blood for their sake, if they only believed and received such a sacrificial act. But they didn’t and the rest is recorded in scripture.

Jesus, at the highlight of his ministry, lost so many counterfeit followers who were just in it for the freebies. They were merely fans from a distance and not disciples at heart. Jesus, by his word, revealed who they truly were.

“The true way for a Christian to live is to live entirely upon Christ…Christians have experiences and they have feelings, but, if they are wise, they never feed upon these things, but upon Christ, Himself.” - C.H. Spurgeon

I AM

What saves you?

Many people today will try to save themselves through their own work. They'll try to make up for their wrongs and somehow make life right by their own striving.

Still other people will look to others to save them, always depending on their families, friends, and loved ones to carry them through.

A few will look to their careers and financial stability to save them through the perils of a challenging life, getting their sustenance and security in a vast amount of money and credentials to somehow buy their way through life.

A small number will eventually look to some form of religion, belief, or spirituality to get themselves to reach a higher being—a 'god' if you will—or even several deities to get them through life, and most especially death (if indeed they believe in an after-life).

People on their deathbeds will no doubt look to something outside of themselves as if to say, "I've done all that I can", "I've contributed my part", "I made my wrongs into rights", "I've somehow paid for all the mistakes I made", and "I paved the way for a good spot somewhere outside of this current life".

They look on and see their life's worth in the lens of what they've done, who they've come across along the way, and if they've given it their best shot.

The people who go through this near-end phase will have a terrible thought inevitably come their way:

"what if all of it, wasn't good enough?"

What then?

There is quite an astonishing belief in us humans that we can save ourselves if we just get enough things right or if we fulfill some sort of measuring stick. We gut it out through life, trying to be the best versions of ourselves but we know deep inside that we can never be perfect. There's no such creature that can boast perfection apart from a perfect Creator—the source of everything and anything.

At this point, plenty of folks will tune out and save themselves the trouble of thinking about a "creator" because it sounds so cliché and religious.

Though a handful will read on in the hopes of discovering something worthwhile; let me tell you, you've made the right choice.

What follows are truths that can be discovered in the Book of Life:

• You cannot save yourself.
• Other people definitely cannot save you.
• Your job, work, nor money won't be able to save you.
• You're not good enough, and never will be.
• Your efforts for goodwill are contrived and will never amount to anything.
• Your salvation is impossible because you are quite the contrary of perfection: you're flawed.

Flaws can never be accepted and therefore are never received. Take the case of factory re-runs, they are never sold in the official store, they're simply not good enough.

The Book of life tells us that no one, not anyone ever in the history of the entire universe's galactic multi-billion life has ever been good enough...

except for One.

This One was the one who is meant to show us our flaws, imperfections, weaknesses, and failures. He is the ultimate consummation of everything perfect, glorious, and beautiful. Beyond any word we can surmise, that is He.

In ancient records, He is known as the eternally pre-existent One. In antiquity, He is recognized as the all encompassing One. In human history, He is known as the Great "I AM".

When this One was asked who He was or what His Name was, the only apt response was: "I Am who Am".

The existence and immense power of the Great I Am was seen in ages since. When, at the dawn of time, The I AM chose to create.

He created that He might show His all-perfect glory and His all-sufficient power; He created so that He might share all that He is with all that He loved.

For epochs since then, humankind has been given a glimpse into such a being but being human, fear gets the better of us and we are terrified of what we do not know or cannot comprehend.

Wanting to be the all-savior of our very own selves, we chose to take upon ourselves the task as lord and master of our destinies—a task that is far too great for us to keep; a task that only the great I AM can hold.

We took our wills and created our own destinies, going against the great I AM. We were separated thus and never had the chance to behold Him again. We were banished into nothingness because the essence of everything was with the great I AM.

We were left with nothing because we wanted everything for ourselves:

“I am great”

“I am good”

“I am beautiful”

“I am glorious”

All these I am's, we have striven for but to no avail. We do not realize that we were never meant to hold all these because they belong only to the one who was and is, and is to come.

Not until at a definite crack of time, as fate intertwined with reality, as divinity came into humanity, as the invisible came to be seen, and as the ethereal came to flesh, not until the turning of the tides of destiny did One come.

This One came in the very Name of the great I AM and He came as God who is God, the very nature of the divine placed in a human body.

He came with all the I AM and showed to us his personal and identifiable Name:

Jesus Christ.

• It wasn't until the Great I AM showed himself to us that we had hope and a future again.
• It wasn't until Jesus Christ walked among us that we could be free and whole again.
• It wasn't until the Son of God who is God became our standard of perfection and the very procurement of that perfection on our behalf through a most gruesome and murderous event: the Cross.

Jesus Christ came to show us that we can never be saved by our own merits but that only He can do such an impossible work. Based on His own sacrifice, He paid the price for our rebellion and changed the face of our destiny forever.

When we discover the great power, beauty, splendor, glory, and love found in the Great I AM, we discover an eternal truth that will ever be the foundation and basis upon which we can live our lives:

It was because of the great I AM that I am saved.