{"id":677,"date":"2010-03-08T01:32:31","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T01:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aaronmatthew.com\/thoughts\/?p=677"},"modified":"2020-04-06T18:34:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T18:34:33","slug":"the-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aaronmatthew.com\/blog\/2010\/the-breakthrough\/","title":{"rendered":"The Breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a while now the idea of a \u201cbreakthrough<\/strong>\u201d has bothered me. I have always heard: \u201cI had a breakthrough<\/strong>\u201c, \u201cthey had a breakthrough<\/strong>\u201c, \u201che\/she finally broke through<\/strong>\u201c. I thought to myself, what is this constant need for a breakthrough from the saints who have been church all of their lives, and what are we breaking through? Bear with me I am going somewhere with this, I promise.<\/p>\n

Here is my trouble with \u201cthe breakthrough<\/strong>\u201d. Aren\u2019t we supposed to be living for Christ daily and not just on church days, so why do we need to start over every service? Shouldn\u2019t we be living consistently for Him, rather than from breakthrough-to-breakthrough?<\/p>\n

I believe that this is more than an issue of spiritual consistency. What I see is a myriad of issues with the idea of waiting for Sunday\u2019s breakthrough. One is seeking to impress Jesus with our works, \u201clook at how good I have been Jesus, so bless me<\/em>\u201d. Another is the lack of faith in God\u2019s love unless everyone around us was tearing the church apart and God is knocking us off our feet. Yet another is the offering of pride and self-indulgence (article for another time \u2013 I am referring to Cain and Able). I am not saying that this all that a breakthrough service is about, I am just saying (myself included) that we have all been guilty of this way of thinking at one time or another; let’s be honest.<\/p>\n

I grew up in an environment focused on the level physical and emotional manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Now before you freak out, I love great church, tongues and a great move of the spirit. Again, please bear with me; this is not an article bashing the move of the spirit, only a closer look at the heart behind our worship and praise offering.<\/p>\n

This way of thinking lead me to believe that there was more of God in the big moves of the spirit, and what we were pushing for was \u201cgood church<\/strong>\u201c, thus we were trying to reach a spiritual climax to get more of God. Our faith was in the physical manifestation of God\u2019s presence rather than a spiritual unseen God. The problem with this is that often the big moves of God were typically at conferences, youth camps and big churches with great music where the best musicians played and the best preachers preached.<\/p>\n

Growing up in a small church, we didn\u2019t have the best musicians, there was no praise team, just a minister who often sang off key, forgot the words and only sang from the dreaded \u201cred hymn book<\/strong>\u201d. Growing up my walk with God was often seasonal at best because I waited until I could feel Him in a \u201cbig service<\/strong>\u201d before I could have my relationship with Jesus or my breakthrough. As a young man, in my mind, my little church didn\u2019t have good enough music, a good enough song leader, a fiery enough preacher and the church wasn\u2019t spiritual enough to impress God and warrant His presence with a breakthrough service.<\/p>\n

If we break this way of thinking down, we find that our faith and worship really isn\u2019t based in faith in God, but rather is based in what we can feel, see, hear and can experience in the physical. What we are really worshiping is the excellence of music, and a man\u2019s ability to stir us with his words. When we obtain our breakthrough service we feel God has finally been gracious enough to manifest Himself because we have somehow merited His love with enough tongues, singing, worship, praise and our goodness.<\/p>\n

This is not faith; this is waiting on physical evidence of God to believe He is with us. Let\u2019s reflect on the following questions:<\/p>\n