When there hasn’t been breakthrough

I was begging the Lord for breakthrough. I was weeping at His feet begging Him to have His way in my life. I was taking communion, anointing my home and myself, fasting weekly, reading all the right books, and only listening to worship music…. but nothing was changing. 

Maybe I hadn’t renounced enough lies. Maybe I hadn’t repented enough. Maybe I hadn’t decreed and declared enough or maybe I hadn’t decreed and declared the right things. Maybe I needed to not want breakthrough to look a certain way. Maybe I needed to blah, blah, blah, religious act this or religious act that. 

Most Christians have a working understanding that they can’t earn their salvation… but Martin Luther once said that “religion is the default of the human heart” and we see that realized in the moments of trying to ‘earn’ our breakthrough. Even the “least religious” Christians turn to some sort of Christian equation in times of pain and trial; charismatics try and figure out how many times they need to prayer walk their neighborhood while praying in tongues and the baptists will try to figure out how many books of the Bible they need to memorize.

How absolutely exhausting.

When we examine the life of Christ, we see the way He abhors religious heart motives. It’s never about the actions, we need to be disciplined in our faith, it’s all about the posture of our hearts. If you believe that your religious deeds will bring you breakthrough, you have missed the entire purpose of your trial; closeness with Jesus. No matter what you are facing, the greatest outcome possible for you, is deeper intimacy with Jesus- second would be the thing that you’re praying for.

When Lazarus died, Martha ran to Jesus and said to Him, “If You would have been here my brother wouldn’t have died.” A true statement that Jesus confirms with one of the greatest ‘I Am’ statements that Jesus makes, stating that He indeed is the Messiah, The Resurrection and the Life. Incredible! But then Jesus asks for Mary. When Mary shows up she says the exact same thing that her sister said, “If You would have been here my brother wouldn’t have died.” Right after this, Jesus asked to see the body, weeps, and then resurrects her brother. Why was there such a different response to the exact same statement? When Mary says it, she is weeping at His feet.

Worship changes everything.

We need spiritual discipline. we need to be in the Word- we need to memorize it and write it on our hearts. We need to fast regularly and we need to take communion and remember what Jesus has done for us. Paul says we should all desire to speak in tongues and we should do that! But…. without worship, without loving Jesus through it all, we might as well not even be Christians.

That’s not heresy, that’s what Paul said.

“ If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Research has shown us that the people living in Corinth at the time who worshiped pagan gods did so using gongs and cymbals. Paul is saying that if we do all of these great spiritual practices without love, without worship, we might as well be pagans.

I don’t know what is on the other side of your situation. I don’t know what breakthrough will look like in your life or in mine… but I know that I’ll never get there as Martha. I know I’ll never get there through pagan worship.

Drawing near to Jesus is the only way to see things change in your life because when we draw near to Him, everything changes in the light of who He is.

Let Him shift your heart from desperate religious acts to intimacy and worship. Weep at His feet, lean into His voice, and gaze into the eyes of the One who loves you and has an incredible plan for your life and a perfect way through this storm.

You are so loved, dear one. Hold on to Him.