Breakthrough

One of the most common words you will find thrown around in Christian circles is the word “breakthrough.”

Usually, it refers to something the Christian is praying for, anticipating, and sometimes crying out to God for. There is an acute need that needs to be filled, a benchmark that needs to be reached, an object that needs to be obtained. Your breakthrough can range from sin that needs to be overcome to a bill that needs to be paid, a healing that you seek, or something that you need, like a new car.

One of the most dramatic breakthroughs that I have ever witnessed happened on a missionary trip to India in 2003. I was asked by a national evangelist to accompany him on a ten-day trip to preach in many churches in India.

Three of us made the trip, landed in India and began a tour of a number of churches in the general area that forms a triangle between Calcutta, New Delhi and Ranchi. Though we preached in a large outdoor gathering of about 4000, most of our meetings were in small churches of about 100.

Steve had accompanied us from Baltimore. Before he left, a single mother approached him and stuffed $70 in his hand. “This is for someone like me,” she said. “A single mother who is struggling.”

In India, we kept an eye out for this single mother in great need. At one of the meetings, while we were conducting prayer lines, this mother appeared. She had been praying for some time for $70 to send her son to school.

In India, education is everything. If a child can achieve an education, he is delivered from extreme, abject poverty.

Steve called across the room to our leader, “I think this is the one. This is the one who is to receive the $70.”

Now think about it. This Indian mother’s prayer had gone something like this: “Lord I need $70 to send my son to school. I don’t have it, but somebody has it, and You can get it to me.”

When we gave her the money, she lit up like a light bulb. God had answered her prayer, and He had sent the money to her in India from Baltimore, half way across the world.

She had gotten her breakthrough!

I will never forget the picture of her worshipping and thanking God for her breakthrough, the joy literally radiating from her face.

There was a time after I had gone through a financial meltdown that I was living day to day, literally trusting God for food, gas and money to pay the bills for each day. I was living by myself in the bottom of a duplex in Shakopee, Minnesota.

One Sunday night, I took inventory and suddenly realized that I was out of money and my gas tank was empty. What was I to do?

I went to the public library two blocks away, found a chair in the corner and began to pray. I stayed there all day Monday and all day Tuesday. On Tuesday night the Lord said to me, “Put $30 worth of gas in your car and go to the mailbox tomorrow.” I knew from experience that if I wrote a check at the local Holiday, it would take two days to hit the bank.

The next day I went to the mailbox over 20 miles away. With great anticipation I opened it a crack and looked inside. There were two envelopes inside. I opened the first and it was a 20-dollar bill. I nearly jumped up and down. When you have less than a dollar to your name, 20 dollars seems like a bonanza.

But the real prize was in the second envelope. It was a check for $1000.

I don’t know if any of you has experienced being totally broke. Usually there is some way to get money. Most people have a credit card or two. I had no credit cards and I had run out of options to borrow money. I was totally, and you might say, “helplessly” dependent on the Lord. I did the only thing I could do. I went to the library to fast and pray, and “hope” in God.

One thousand dollars on the third day seemed like a bonanza.

It was a great “breakthrough!”

A breakthrough can change your life and your circumstances completely. It can take you from a position of dire need to a position of abundance. It can change your mood from desperation to sheer joy.

God is the source of your breakthrough.

Usually, when I need a breakthrough, I ask God, then I rack my brain trying to figure out what I can do to get what I need.

This is human nature. We want to be self-sufficient, obtaining what we need, when we need it. We don’t like to be helplessly dependent on God.

God, on the other hand, longs to be our everything. He longs to supply our needs and many times our wants. As a loving Father, He loves to give good things to His children.

Still, human nature wants to be self-sufficient. We want to get the things we need by our own scheming and efforts.

When I need a breakthrough, I usually exhaust every avenue that could supply it and end up looking helplessly to God. “God, if you don’t come through, I’m dead in the water. I’m “toast!”

The breakthrough you need is usually way over your head, out of reach to obtain by your own doing.

That’s the way God likes it. I think He purposely puts us in a position where there is no mistaking who brought the breakthrough. Then, usually it comes suddenly . . . just when you are physically and spiritually exhausted, feeling like you are about to go down for the third time.

So many times, what we need comes at the very last minute. Once I told the Lord, “Lord I need money!” He answered, “Do you need it today?”

No, I didn’t need it today, but I needed it the next day. It came when I needed it.

Once, a couple I knew had an electric bill coming due for $32. Raising four children at the time, things were very difficult. They went to prayer.

Just before it was due, a money order came in the mail for $32. He told me the sender was called “heavenly —-.” He couldn’t remember the second word of the name. He wanted to know who had sent the money. The address was in St. Paul. When he pulled up in front of the address, it was a vacant lot.

Obviously, heaven itself, literally, was involved in their breakthrough.

Don’t consider your need for a breakthrough a curse.

Consider it a blessing, an opportunity for God to show Himself very large on your behalf.

To get your breakthrough, you must first ask and be very specific. Then believe and keep on asking until your breakthrough arrives.

Never, never, never, give up or stop asking until your breakthrough arrives.

Keep on asking and it will be given to you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking (reverently) and the door will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7 Amplified
 

Ministry Need

Lorraine’s car, that was given to her brand new 12 years ago, has now developed some “needs.” We were ready to go to Minneapolis to record 20 radio spots. A ball joint started going bad three years ago and had now reached the danger point. The repair was $670.00, took all of our available cash and we didn’t make it to Minneapolis.

The car has been very reliable, but now has 190,000 miles on it. We need to do $3000 more in repairs. These will have to be taken care of soon.

Would you please prayerfully consider a generous donation this month? Doing God’s work requires money, like everything else. May God richly bless you for your generosity.

In His Service,

George and Lorraine Halama

All contributions are tax deductible

Photograph taken by Lorraine