PRAYING FOR BREAKTHROUGH IN YOUR WORLD
____________________________________________________________
Are you meeting up with spiritual resistance to your prayers? Does heaven seem closed against you? Are you looking for breakthrough in your life or in the lives of those for whom you pray?
“He is the God of the impossible who finds great delight in revealing His power to make a way where there is no way.” – Anne Graham Lotz
Perhaps you are struggling with a besetting sin or habit. Maybe you are burdened by personal problems… health, relational, financial. Or maybe there is someone in your life who is overwhelmed by adversities… who needs a breakthrough… and has no one else to turn to for prayer.
So many people have no one to pray for them. Yet we have a God who is infinitely greater than any problems or trials. We need to tap into that divine source of supernatural power by prayer for breakthrough to occur in their lives.
“For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” – 1 John 5:4
Faith underlies breakthrough for any problem or area of resistance. When we place absolute trust in our Lord, we overcome because the Overcomer abides in us. We have victory because the Victorious One fights for us. When problems overwhelm, faith acts as our shield to resist the “fiery darts of the enemy” (Ephesians 6:16)… darts like discouragement, defeat or despair.
“Return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.” – Joel 2:12-13
Repentance is key to breakthrough. In biblical times, people fasting would tear their clothes to outwardly express their grief and sorrow over sin. Yet God desires that we instead allow our hearts to be torn over our sin. Breakthrough comes from a rending of our hearts… a longing for restoration. When we repent, we have a renewed anointing of His Spirit and power.
“Look, I am the Lord, the God over every creature. Is anything too difficult for Me?” – Jeremiah 32:27
Are you trusting in your own power or trusting in the One who is all-powerful?
» Look to God and not your problems
Nothing is so great that our God is not greater still. Because we have the power of the living Christ within us, our prayers will have power. We seek His supernatural power not our own. Our persistent prayers are faith-based… never despairing, ever hopeful. For always in God there is hope.
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My loving eye on you.” – Psalm 32:8
Are you asking the world for answers instead of the One who knows all answers?
» Ask God for guidance and direction
Our omniscient God is our source for wise counsel. We devotedly pour out our hearts to Him, seeking heavenly answers to our earthly problems. He may share with us divine insights and revelatory knowledge to help us. He may point us in new directions, new paths to follow that will lead us closer to breakthrough.
“Jesus answered, ‘This kind cannot come out, except by prayer and fasting.’” – Mark 9:29
Are you focusing on the mountain instead of your mountain-moving God?
» Begin a reverent fast
Jesus’ power reigns far greater than any evil spirits. When the disciples could not drive a demon out of a young boy, He explains that some can only come out by prayer and fasting. Jesus shares that the discipline of fasting will give power to their prayers.
Some sins and enemy strongholds may only be broken by the power of both prayer and fasting. If no amount of prayer seems to meet with overcoming success, a reverent fast may be in order. It is a weapon in our spiritual arsenal to break through areas of resistance and persistent sin.
What is a reverent fast? It is a fast of the heart… a heart that desires to draw closer in reverent worship to our Lord. It deepens the roots of our faith in God’s kingdom soil. A reverent fast is not a health discipline but a spiritual discipline. It is not for outward appearance but for inward change.
Fasting is often found in Scripture when great breakthrough is desperately needed. We see fasting in biblical greats like Daniel, Moses, Elijah, Nehemiah, John the Baptist. Even Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness.
Fasting is not just abstaining from certain foods or drink. It may be from anything that the Lord places upon your heart. The key is to spend that time instead in earnest prayer and worship. Seek the power of His presence. Search His Word for His promises to sustain you. Ask Him for the breakthrough that you so desperately desire.
“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.” – Isaiah 58:8
God promises that breakthrough will come like the dawn… like the sun breaking the darkness of night. The light of the Lord will break through into our world. He will banish the darkness of sin and the strongholds of the enemy that have held us and those for whom we pray captive.
When we pray for a way, we have faith that God will work mightily and victoriously in whatever areas are needed. Perhaps not as we expected or imagined. Yet we can be sure that the fullness of God’s joy and blessing will shine forth when the long-awaited breakthrough arrives at last.
