Rick Warren - God Is Setting You Up for a Breakthrough — Don't Quit Now

Why do I not have to worry in the breakthrough prayer? Well,

here's the question. Has God ever lost a battle in

all of history? No. We lose battles. God has never

lost a battle that he fought. So you can't lose.

If God's fighting the battle for you, you can't lose.

You're going to win. I want to talk to you

this weekend about how do you pray a breakthrough prayer?

I'm going to teach you how to pray for a

breakthrough prayer in your life. A breakthrough prayer is different

than any normal prayer. Normal prayer is saying, God, I

need energy. God, I need strength. God, I need caffeine. God,

I need wisdom. And you pray those kind of prayers

all the time. Breakthrough prayers are not for everyday use.

Breakthrough prayers are when you have a crisis in your

life that is uncontrollable. Breakthrough are when everything is going

wrong and you can do nothing about it. When you

need God to just step in. When you need to

go home and clean your house, don't pray a breakthrough prayer,

just go home and clean your house. But when there's

something beyond your scope, it's unknowable, it's unmanageable, it's uncontrollable,

then you need to know how to pray a breakthrough prayer.

The principles I'm going to teach you this weekend have

changed my life, I've used them. This is how I pray,

this is how I see God move mountains year after

year after year. Now, one of the elements of a

breakthrough prayer is actually thanking God in advance. And I

need to explain this to you like this. If I

were to call you up this afternoon and I would say,

for your Christmas gift I'm going to give you this year,

I'm going to pay your mortgage for the next 12 months.

and I've already put the check in the mail. Now,

I've already given it, but you haven't received it yet.

Does that make sense? So I've put the check in

the mail, but you haven't got it yet. And there's

that little delay. When do you start thanking me? After

the check clears? Or would you thank me when I

called you on the phone? And you say, Rick's an

honest guy. He's got integrity. If he says it, he's

not conning me. It's not a scam. It's not a

job he's doing on me. And if Rick has promised,

I'm gonna pay your mortgage for the next 12 months,

I haven't actually paid it, but you thank me in advance.

Do you get that? That's just normal. This is what

God wants you to do in prayer. And part of

a breakthrough prayer, one of the five elements of a

breakthrough prayer, is actually thanking God in advance. Now I

want you to notice on the top of your outline,

Jesus said this in Mark chapter 11. Anytime you ask

Mark 11 · chapter mention

for anything in prayer, believe that you have received it

and you will receive it. Now I really want you

to get this. Notice the change in tense here. Believe

that you have received it. That's past tense here. and

you will receive it. That's future tense. I want you

to read this verse aloud together, and I want you

to emphasize the word have. Okay, let's read it together.

Anytime you ask for anything in prayer, believe that you

have received it, and you will receive it. You say,

wait a minute, I've got to believe I've got it

in order to get it? Yep, that's called faith. I

believe that I've got it already in order to get it.

You're saying, you mean I gotta believe a thing is

so even though it isn't so so that it will

become so? Yes. That's called faith. If I send you

that check for the next 12 months, you haven't paid

12 months yet, but you start thanking me instantly. This

is called faith. Now this is the difference between gratitude

and faith. But you might write this down on your notes.

Thanking God after he gives something is gratitude. Thanking God

before he gives it is called faith. And in the

breakthrough prayer, you need to have faith, not just gratitude.

Thanking God after he's given you something, that's just gratitude. Lord,

I appreciate what you've done. Thank you for this, thank

you for that, thank you for all these things. But

when you thank God in advance, before he's actually given it,

You say, I know, I've asked for it, you've promised

to give it to me, so I'm thanking you in advance.

That's called faith. This is what you do when you

keep praying for something over and over and over and

over while you're waiting for God's timing. We'll talk a

little bit about that in the future. The persistence is

another part of prayer. What do you do? Do you

have to just keep asking God, I want this, I

want this, I want this, like you're wearing God down? No, no.

You only need to ask God for it one time,

but then in all your future prayers, while you're waiting

for the check to arrive, you thank him. Does that

make sense? So you don't have to keep going, please

give it to me, please give it to me, please

give it to me, please, like you're begging God. No,

you just have to say, God, I want you to

give this to me. You've promised in your word to

give it to me. I'm gonna teach you these five things.

And then for the rest of the time until it arrives,

you just thank God. That's faith. Now, Abraham did this.

God told Abraham, you're going to have a son and

you're going to be the father of many nations. Abraham

started thanking God immediately. God, thank you that you're giving

me a son. Thank you that I have a son.

He even changed his name to father of many nations.

You know how many years he thanked God before he

got his first son? 25 years. That's a long time

to thank God. God's timing was perfect. He was actually

100 years old when that baby was born. So it

was a flat out miracle. When I started Saddleback Church

many years ago, for 13 years, I thanked God that

he had given us a piece of land, the first

piece of land, the Lake Forest Campus, long before we

ever had it. But for 13 years, I wasn't saying

give us land, give us land, give us land, give

us a building. I was saying, Lord, I asked for

that the first year And at 13 years, I just

thanked God for it in advance. That's part of a

breakthrough prayer. Now, the best example of a breakthrough prayer

is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. I've taught on this

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

passage before, but it fits so perfectly, and we need

to come back to this text. In fact, last week,

I read you the first five verses of this. It's

about a guy named Jehoshaphat. He's a king in Israel.

And Three enemy nations decide to tag team and come

up against him. And three enemy armies are coming against Israel.

And he knows he's going to get creamed. He knows

he's going to be defeated. There's no way he can

overpower three to one odds. After this, they'd had a

big spiritual revival in the nation. Three enemy nations united

to attack King Jehoshaphat. And spies told him a huge

combined army is marching to Jerusalem right now to defeat you.

That would be overwhelming. He can't do anything to stop it.

Scared and worried, King Jehoshaphat resolved to seek the Lord,

and he announced a nationwide fast. So then everyone came

together to fast and to pray and to seek help

from God. And when they all got to the temple

in Jerusalem, they'd come from all over the nation, the

king stood up and he prayed aloud. Now, This guy

does three things right when he's in a crisis. You

need to do these same things too. He prayed privately,

he gets other people to pray, and then he prays publicly.

And this is what you want to do when you're

in a major crisis in your life. First, he prays privately.

It says he resolved to seek the Lord. Now, instead

of worrying, I got three enemies coming against me, and

there's no way we're going to beat them. Instead of worrying,

he worships. Instead of panicking, he prays. and he turns

to God, and before he does anything else, it says

he resolved to seek the Lord. He doesn't seek a consultant.

He doesn't seek a business plan. He doesn't seek a

bankruptcy advisor. He goes directly to God, and the very

first thing he does in a crisis is he resolves

to seek the Lord. Prayer should always be the first

choice in your life, not the last resort. Now, this

week we're gonna look at Jehoshaphat's prayer, which is the

rest of chapter 1 Chronicles chapter 20. Verse 3, it says,

1 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

Jehoshaphat was afraid, so he set his face to seek

the Lord. Now, you may be afraid about some problem

in your life. That's okay. It's okay to be afraid.

It's what you do with the fear. And it says

here that what he did was he set his face

to seek the Lord. Does that phrase sound familiar? We

talked about it many times in the series on Daniel.

Every time Daniel got in a crisis, he set his

face to seek the Lord. You remember I told you

that I learned after 41 years of marriage that when

my wife speaks, I set my face to seek my wife.

And I look at her, and she likes it when

she talks to me that I'm looking at her. God

does too. And so the Bible, this phrase is used

all through the scripture. The Bible says Jesus set his

face to look to God, to look to the cross,

to look to Jerusalem. And so it just means turn

your attention. Now what do you do in a breakthrough prayer? Well,

you do five things. These are the five things that

he does. Write these down. Number one, the first thing

you do is you start by focusing on God, not

my problem. When you're in a crisis, it's natural to

start saying, God, I'm in a crisis. And you start

telling God all the crisis as if he doesn't know it.

God knows you're in a crisis. He knew you were

going to be in the crisis long before you did,

before you were even born. He knew that crisis would

happen in your life. So you don't start your prayer

by saying, God, here's my prayer. I need money. I

need a wife. I need a new job. I need

to get out of bankruptcy or whatever the crisis is.

I need a healing. You start by focusing on God.

And what do you do is exactly what this guy did.

And he does four things here. You might write these down. First,

in my prayer, I remind myself of God's greatness. Now

this is what you're gonna do first when you're praying

in a crisis, when you're praying for a breakthrough, when

you're praying for something you cannot control, you don't focus

on the problem, you focus on God's greatness. God, you're

a great God. You're a big God. You're an amazing God.

You're a loving God. You're a faithful God. God, you

created the whole universe. This is not a problem for you.

The bigger God gets in your mind, the smaller the

problem becomes. And God says, nothing's too hard for me.

All things are possible with God. So I start my prayer,

not by thinking about the problem, but by reminding myself

of God's greatness. In verse six, here's what he prayed.

Oh Lord, are you not the God who's in heaven?

I mean, didn't you make this whole thing, the whole universe?

Aren't you the God in heaven? You rule over every

kingdom and every nation. And you are so powerful and

mighty that nothing and no one can defeat you. I

focus on God's greatness. Second, next thing I do is

I remind myself of his power. I remind myself of

God's unlimited power. And when I realize that God has

all the power in the world, I don't have to

have any power. God's got it all. And I can

just trust him. And so in my prayer, I think

of all the ways that God has helped me in

the past. All the ways God has helped other people

in the past. All the ways God has helped people

in the Bible. And I go, remember when you did that?

And remember when you did that? And remember when you

did that? You had all the power to, you know,

like you split the Red Sea. And you brought water

to the thirsty people in the desert through a rock.

And all these miracles that God has done. God, you're

a miracle-working God. You're powerful. God, you're great. And God,

you're powerful. You're powerful. And didn't you help me in

the past? Yes, you did. And he says this in

verse seven. And God, did you not drive out those

who tried to keep us from living here when you

brought us back home? What's he talking about? He's talking

about the Exodus. Remember, God gave the land of Israel

to Abraham. And he said, I'm gonna make you a

great nation. And it began to grow and grow. The

Jewish nation began to grow and grow. Then there was

a famine and they disobeyed God and they left their

own country because there was food in Egypt And the

whole nation moved to Egypt, where they were enslaved for

the next 400 years. It was a bad deal, bad decision. Finally,

Moses brings them back to the promised land, back to

the land that was given to them. And guess what?

In those 400 years, other people had moved into their place.

And they didn't want the Jews to come back. And

they said, God, you gave us this land. And he said, God,

didn't you drive out those who tried to keep us

from coming back here, from living here? He said, you've

helped us in the past. I remind myself of God's

greatness and I remind myself of God's power. And here's

the third thing you do in a breakthrough prayer. You

remind God, not yourself, you remind God of his promises.

This is a real important key for you to get.

In your prayer, you say, God, didn't you promise me

to help us, didn't you promise to take care of us?

Didn't you promise to meet all our needs? Haven't you promised,

we've told you many times, there's like four, five, six, 7,000 prayers,

I mean promises in this book, in the Bible. And

in the next verse he says, and God, by the way,

did you not give us this promised land to your friend,

to your friend Abraham's descendants, that's us, to be theirs forever?

So he's saying, God, you promised us Now, God loves

to be reminded of his promises. We don't. If we're parents,

we don't. I mean, if your kid comes to you, Dad,

you promised. You said, Dad, you said you'd do this. Mom,

you promised. How can you break your promise? Because we're imperfect,

because we're not always loving, because we're not always in control.

When our kids remind us of promises we've made to them,

it's a pain. but it's not a pain to God.

In fact, God loves when you come to him and say, hey,

by the way, God, you said you'd answer prayer. By

the way, God, you've said, you've promised to take care

of all my needs. By the way, God, you've promised

to care for me and to heal me in this situation.

And God loves to have his word quoted back to him.

And so he said, God, we're gonna, I need your help.

And I'm asking you to keep your promises. And then finally,

the fourth thing he does is he asks God for

a breakthrough. He asks God for a breakthrough. And he says, God,

in verse 10 to 12, our enemies want to destroy us.

Will you not stop them from defeating us? Now, notice,

in this prayer, he's very specific. He gives a very

specific request. Here's the breakthrough I need. Do you know

what you need to ask God? If you don't, God

can't give it. Because you got to know what you

want to ask for. So you need to clarify, where

do I need a breakthrough in my life? Don't ever

ask God, oh, God, bless my life. It's such a general,

vague thing. How are you going to know if God

did it or not? What is a blessing anyway? Could

anybody right now give me a definition of a blessing?

What is a blessing? Sometimes a blessing is a problem.

It's a blessing in disguise and it keeps you from

a bigger problem. Is that what you're praying when you

say God give me a lot of blessings, God give

me a lot of problems? You might want to be

careful about asking God to bless you. It's very vague,

it's very general. You can't actually measure it. But when

you say God, I need to get out of debt. God,

I need a healing for this particular thing. God, I

need this relationship to be healed. I need the conflict

to end. That's measurable. That's specific. You'll know when that's happened.

And so you ask God for a breakthrough. Now that's

all in just the first step. You start by focusing

on God. You're great. You're good. You're powerful. You've made

a bunch of promises. And so I'm asking you to

do it again. Notice in that passage that Jehoshaphat asked

four questions. He said, are you not God? Did you

not help us in the past? Have you not made

promises to us? And will you not do it again?

You can pray those exact same things in your breakthrough prayer.

Now here's the second part of a breakthrough prayer. I

tell God, I can't do this. I need you to

do this. That's the second thing you do when you

pray a breakthrough prayer. You tell God, I can't do this.

It's impossible for me. I'm powerless. That's hopeless. I'm helpless.

I can't do this. I need you to do this.

This is what makes breakthrough prayers different than other prayers.

When you say, God, I need your help. That means

you still think you can do it. And that's okay.

A lot of times you say, Lord, I need your

strength today. Lord, I need your help today. Lord, I

need your wisdom today. That's a normal prayer. In a

breakthrough prayer, you go, God, I can't even possibly do

this because it's beyond my control. I need you to

do this. I need you to do this. It's when

you feel powerless. Have you ever felt powerless? Let me

ask it another way. Have you ever held a screaming

baby and tried to get it to be quiet and

it wouldn't? A little tiny baby can control you and

wrap you around its fingers because you go, I'm an adult.

I'm going crazy if this child doesn't stop screaming. And

no matter what you do, that baby won't stop screaming.

That's feeling of powerlessness. And when you feel that way,

you need to pray a breakthrough prayer. Notice verse 12.

Here's the second thing he prays. After he says, God,

you're great. You're powerful. He says, we are powerless. We're

powerless against this mighty army that is coming to attack us.

And we don't know what to do, but we're looking

to you for help. Now, this is very important. Look

at that passage again. You should do this exact same

thing when you're praying for a breakthrough in your life. First,

you tell God exactly how you feel. God, I feel powerless.

I have tried and tried and tried and tried and tried,

and I can't control this. I can't manage this. I

can't manipulate this. I can't change this. I've been batting

my head against the wall for weeks, months, or years,

or decades, and it's not changing. That's when you need

a breakthrough prayer. We're powerless. You tell God, it feels hopeless,

and you admit your inability. it's beyond my control and

you admit even he says not only he said we're

powerless but he says we don't know what to do

he says even if we did have the power we

don't even know what to do I don't know what

to do in this situation you ever been in those

kind of situations for a lot You've been in them

a lot. Where you go, I don't even have the

slightest idea what to do. This net, this mess, this

knot is so tangled and it's out of my control.

I don't know what to do. Well, you do this. God,

I'm powerless. I don't know what to do, but I'm

looking at you. I'm focusing on you. I'm turning to you. God,

I can't do this. It's not like I need your help.

I can't do it even with your help. I need

you to do this. You have a family member or

loved one who's dying, there's nothing you can do about it.

There's nothing you can do about that. If anything is

gonna be done, it has to be done by somebody

greater than you. If your company moves overseas, you're gonna

lose your job. There's nothing you can do about it.

Most of the big things in your life, there's nothing

you can do about. That's why you need to learn

the breakthrough prayer. Did you notice that in that verse

12 it says we're powerless? But six verses earlier when

he started the prayer he said you're all powerful. I

don't have to be powerful if I'm connected to God

because he's all powerful. I don't have to be all

knowing if I'm connected to God because he's all knowing.

I don't have to be in every place if I'm

connected to God because he's in every place. And so

what do you do When you're in a situation that

you cannot control, you cannot change, and you cannot manage,

what do you do in that kind of situation? You

wait and you trust. You wait and you trust. Sometimes faith,

it means doing nothing. You just stand still, you just

stand there, you wait and you trust. You trying to

do something puts it back in your court. sometimes there's

something so big in your life you can't do anything

about it and you keep saying you know if i

just figure this out i'll just work it out things

will work out great and it used to get more

and more tired sometimes faith means doing nothing sometimes faith

means just standing there and waiting while the enemy is

headed straight at you you just wait look at the

next verse verse 13 Then all the men of Judah

stood before the Lord. This means they literally, all the people,

the guys in the nation, they stood up before God.

Doesn't mean five minutes. They might have stood before the

Lord for hours. What are they doing? Simply by standing

and saying, God, we're looking to you. This thing's too

big for us. We're gonna have a national crisis. We're

going under for the last time. We're at the end

of our rope, but we're hanging on. We just stand

before the Lord. We're gonna wait, watch, and trust. It says,

then all the men of Judah stood stood before the

Lord waiting with their wives and their young children and

even their babies. So the whole family can get involved

in your breakthrough. Now, here's the second or the third

part of praying a breakthrough. After you have told God,

focused on him, his greatness and all that, and you've

told God you can't do it, you need him to

do it, here's the third thing. Listen for what God says.

Listen to what God says. And that's why I told

you in prayer, prayer is a conversation. It's not a monologue.

Prayer is not you doing all the talking. You mean,

wait a minute, in those five minutes, I don't have

to be talking the whole time? No. A person who

talks all the time, that's not a conversation. That's a monologue.

You want to have a conversation with God. You can't

build a friendship if they never get to talk. And

that's why in these five minutes a day, three times

a day, you're not spending the whole time talking to God.

You're spending some time letting God talk to you. How?

Through this book. Through reading this book. This book is

filled with what God wants to say to you. Everything

God wants to say to you, he's already put it

right here. People are always looking for some sign. I

wish God would tell me what he wants to do.

I wish he would write it in the sky. Right?

God is not gonna write it in the sky. He's

already written it in a book. And you won't read this.

Why in the world do you think you're gonna look

up at the sky? Stop looking for a sign and

start looking for a scripture. Stop looking for a vision

and start looking for a verse. God's will is in

God's word. And the more you read this book, the

more you're gonna know what to do. Here's what the

Bible says, verses 15 to 18. This is what the

Lord says to you. Do not be afraid or discouraged

because of this vast army, the one that's coming to

attack you. For the battle is not yours, but God's. Whoa,

we'll come back to that. The battle's not yours, but God's.

He says you won't need to fight in this battle,

strange battle, Just take up your position and stand strong.

Then just wait and watch and you will see the

Lord deliver you. You're not going to deliver yourself. This

is a breakthrough prayer. I'm going to deliver you. And again,

don't be afraid or get discouraged. He says, listen, get

the message. Don't be worried. Don't be afraid or discouraged

because the Lord is with you. And after they had

listened to what God had said to them, it says,

Then the king and everybody else bowed down on the

ground and they worshiped God. Imagine this scene, an entire

nation getting on the ground, bowing down on their knees

and worshiping God because God said, I'm going to take

care of it. Now this is an amazing thing. When

you pray the way these people prayed, Jehoshaphat the king

and everybody else, you're going to get God saying the

same thing to you. So let's write these things down.

God says four things to you when you pray a

breakthrough prayer. He says these same things to you. Number one,

the first thing God says to you is this, relax.

Don't be afraid or discouraged. This is what the Lord

says to you. Do not be afraid or discouraged because

of this vast army. You can chill out. You can relax.

He says, it's not a problem with me. I'm bigger

than that army. That's the first thing God says to

you when you have a problem that you can't control. Relax,

don't be afraid or discouraged. Second thing God says, and

he's gonna say it to you too, it's my battle

and I'll handle it. It's my battle and I will

handle it. Verse 15, the battle is not yours but God's.

You guys, you wanna know why you're tired all the time?

Why you're frustrated? while you're fatigued, while you're worn out

by life, the reason you're so tired is you're trying

to fight battles that belong to God, and you're not God.

The battle is not yours, it's God. That problem out there,

you think it's your problem? God says, you're my child.

Fathers take care of their children. It's my battle. It's

my battle. The battle is not yours, but God's. You see,

what happens in life Because we're, particularly in America, we're

very independent. And so what happens is when we see

a problem, we think, if it's to be, it's up

to me. I gotta figure it out. I gotta plan

it all. And what we start doing is we assume

God's role. God says, the battle's not yours, it's mine.

And you say, I can solve this mess. And so

you try one thing and it doesn't work. You try

something else, it doesn't work. You try another thing, it

doesn't work. And you've been batting your head trying to

solve this problem in your marriage life. trying to solve

this problem in your body, in the economy, in the world,

in the nation, at school. And you're trying to solve

it on your own power. You're trying to fight the

battle on your own, and you're getting tired. And finally,

you just give up. And you come back to God,

and you say, Lord, I've made a mess of this.

And you say, oh, Lord, I'm so sorry. I've really

let you down. Now, you may have never actually prayed that,

but you fought it. I'm a big disappointment to God.

Because I really tried on this. I tried to solve

this problem. And God, I've messed up. I've made a

mess of it. I'm so sorry, God. I've let you down.

And God says, nope. You didn't let me down because

you weren't holding me up. You don't hold God up.

He holds you up. You don't have God in your hands.

He's got you in his hands. If you got God

in your hands, it's not God. If it's an idol,

if you think you can control God, it's not God.

It may be a lucky charm, a talisman, it may

be a rabbit's foot or a good luck horseshoe or

some little thing you think is gonna give you special

power that's gonna give you special energy and you keep

it in your pocket or on your wrist or whatever

and you think that's gonna help. If you can control it,

it's not God. You're not letting God down. Because you're

not holding him up. Get this through your mind as

your friend and pastor. God is not disappointed in you.

Because he's not expecting you to do what only he

can do. You don't hold God up. He holds you up.

Couple weeks ago, you know, I went to India. India.

And Sunday I got there and I spoke to 110,000 people.

And then the next several days, I did a pastor's

conference from 12,000 pastors from all over India. And on

the last day, we had a stadium rally and I

spoke to, I don't know, 50, 60,000 people. And when

I left LAX... I got on the plane. Can you

imagine how stupid this would look? We're on the tarmac.

We start going down the runway, and as the jet

starts picking up steam, I'm in a 747. It's a

16-hour flight to Dubai and then another five hours to Hyderabad.

And as that plane goes down the runway, would it

be stupid if I started doing this? Laughter And as

the speed picks up, I start doing it faster and

faster and faster. And as the nose guides in the air,

I'm going really, really fast, really, really fast. And the

steward comes back, the flight attendant comes back and says, Mr. Warren,

what are you doing? Oh, I'm helping us get off

the ground. You know, Mr. Warren, it has enough power

on its own. It doesn't need your help. Oh, no,

it might crash if I don't do this. Three hours

into the flight, I'm going. And the flight attendant goes, Mr. Warren,

you really don't have to do this. The battle is

not yours, it's God's. Okay, you get the point. Okay,

you get the point. You're not holding the plane up.

You're not holding God up. Let me ask you a

very personal question. Are your arms getting tired of flapping?

In what area of your life have you been flapping

for months and maybe even years? In my marriage, trying

to make it work. In my job, trying to make

it work. In my health, trying to make it work.

And you're just flapping and flapping and flapping and flapping.

And you right now, you're on the verge of just saying, God,

I give up. And God says, great, now we can

get something done. I've been waiting for you to realize

you're not holding me up. Great. Give up. And as

your friend today, I'm telling you, give up. The battle

is not yours. It's God. Now, once you give up,

God says, now I can get something done. So God

says four things to these people, and he says the

same things to you. Relax. It's my battle. I'll handle it.

Here's the third thing he says. Keep serving in your position.

Keep serving in your position. The next line in that

verse says, just take up your position and stand strong.

Here's the enemy coming against them. He doesn't say go

home and light a fire and watch TV. He also says,

doesn't say go fight them. He says, get in your

position and stand there. That takes an enormous amount of faith.

He says, you've got a position. Just stand strong. And

then that's the fourth thing he says is watch, wait

and watch what God does. That big problem in your life?

It's my battle. Stand firm, stay in your position, wait

and watch what God does. Now this is the strangest

battle in history. And at verse 17, here's what he says. Now,

you're not going to need to fight in this battle.

Would you agree? That's a pretty unusual battle. So you

don't need to fight in this one. Just take up

your position and stand strong. Then just wait and watch,

and you will see, you will see the Lord deliver you.

You're not going to deliver yourself. Again, don't be afraid

or discouraged, second time, because the Lord is with you.

And then the king and everybody else all bowed down

on the ground and worshiped God. That passage I just

read in three words, here's what God says to them.

I got this. I got this, okay? It's not your problem.

I got this. I will handle this. By the way,

that verse there, verse 17, 2 Chronicles 20, is the

middle verse of the Old Testament. Some of you, that's

the only thing you're going to get. A little trivia.

You write it down. Middle verse of the Old Testament.

But he says, in this battle, you don't need to fight,

you don't need to move, and you don't need to worry.

You get that? He says, first, you don't need to

fight in this battle. You can resign as general manager

of the universe, and it's not going to fall apart.

You're not Atlas holding everything up. God's holding you up.

You don't need to fight. He says, you don't even

need to move. Move. He says, stand strong. You don't

have to manipulate God. You don't have to help God.

Just let God be God. He says, stand strong. You

don't have to move. Now listen, this is for somebody here.

Some of you are thinking, if I could just move,

all my problems would be different. If I could just

move away. If I could just go to Tahiti, then

I would not have any stress. You know what the

problem with that is? When you go to Tahiti, you

take you. And where is the stress? It's not in

the air, it's between your ears. So you're taking your

stress to Tahiti. Some of you think, life sucks, I

need to move. Well, maybe not. Maybe you're exactly where

you need to be and you need to be at

church every week hearing this kind of teaching so you

know how to handle stress instead of being out there

on their own and doing it in the wrong way.

I know guys who've turned down promotions because they wanted

their kids... his kids to grow up in this church.

Lots of families have done that. Like I said, you

don't need to move. You don't need to manipulate. You

need to help God. You don't need to move. It's

an attitude of quiet confidence. I want you to write

this down. It is never God's will for me to

run from a difficult situation. Would you write that down?

It is never, never, never, never, never, never, never God's

will for me to run from a difficult situation. Because

if you run, you're gonna face it again somewhere else. No,

God says stand still, don't move, just wait, be quiet,

stand strong. If you run from a difficulty, you run

from a difficult marriage, you tend to fall into another

marriage and you're gonna have difficulty there. God wants to

teach you that he's sufficient in everything. So he says

you don't need to fight, you don't need to move,

you don't even need to worry. Twice, God says, don't

be afraid. Why does God say that? Why do I

not have to worry in the breakthrough prayer? Well, here's

the question. Has God ever lost a battle in all

of history? No. We lose battles. God has never lost

a battle that he fought. So you can't lose. If

God's fighting the battle for you, you can't lose. You're

going to win. Now, what do I stand firm? He says,

just stand strong, stand firm. How do I stand strong?

How do I stand firm? I didn't, there's so much

in this chapter, I couldn't even put it all in

the outline. So look up here on the screen. Verse

20 says this. Here's how you stand strong. Put your

faith in God, and you'll be able to stand firm.

Have faith in his prophets, and you will succeed. Now,

as your coach, as your pastor, That's what I'm praying

for you every day. I'm praying that you'll be able

to stand firm in life, you won't fall over, and

I'm praying that you'll succeed. I pray for your success

in life. My goal is to help you be successful

in every area of your life. And he tells us

there how you do it. Well, the way you get

stability is by putting your faith in God, his character,

and the way you get success is by putting your

faith in what his prophets have said. This is it.

It's the word. And the more you get in this book,

This is what God spoke to us through these prophets.

He said, if you do that, you're going to succeed.

The more you're in this book, the more you're going

to succeed in life. If you're not in this book,

you're going to make all kinds of mistakes that God said, yeah,

you didn't need to make that one. So he says,

stand firm on the character of God and stand firm

on the truth of the Bible. Now here's the fourth step.

The fourth thing you do in a breakthrough prayer. There

are five things. And you can do this every day

in these little five-minute things. Thank God in advance for

the answer. Thank God in advance for the answer. And

the reason I chose this particular story from the Bible

is because it perfectly illustrates the power of thanking God

in advance before you get the answer. And notice, this

is an unusual battle strategy. George Patton would have fainted

if he had been given this order. Verse 21, so then,

based on all of what God had said, the king

appointed musicians and singers in robes, in choir robes, to

march out in front of the army. In front, circle

the phrase in front. He appointed musicians and singers to

march out in front of the army. and to loudly

praise and thank the Lord as they're going out to

the battle, to the battlefield. It even tells us what

they sang. Here's the song. This is what they sang.

We thank God. His love never quits. I think we've

got a song like that. His love never fails. It

never gives up. It never runs out on me. He's saying,

we thank you. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. We

love you. Your love is cool. It's always there. Now,

would you agree this is a bizarre way to organize

an army? The king goes, okay, musicians, okay, guitars, trumpets, keyboards.

Didn't have keyboards then. Everybody get out of here. You're

in front. You're in front of the army. And let's

start marching down to the battlefield. Now, imagine this. Three

enemy nations, three times as many people on the other hill,

and they're looking down, they see this choir in front

of the army, and they're going, what is going on?

The Israeli army, the Jews, who'd been trained in the forces,

they got the army in front, they go, yeah, what

is going on? The choir, who's headed toward the enemy

on the front line, go, yeah, we'd like to know

what's going on, because we're the tip of the spear,

and we don't even have any weapons. I got my

little flute. And we're going to sing a song. Thank you, God.

Thank you, God. We love you. You're great. Your love

is eternal. What's going on here? It's a symbol. It's

a metaphor of the principle. We're thanking God before the battle.

We're thanking God in advance. We're putting the choir before

the army. Okay? Now, prayer and praise, when I praise God,

that's verbalized faith. Thank you, God, you're taking care of

my bankruptcy. Thank you, God, you're taking care of my pain.

Thank you, God, you're taking care of this conflict. Thank you, God,

and I'm thanking God in advance. Now, I want you

to notice the power of thanking God in advance. The

next verse, verse 22. At the moment they began to sing, there,

thanking God. At the moment they began to sing and

to praise, the Lord said, caused the armies of these

three enemy nations, Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, to begin

fighting among themselves and they destroyed each other. Now that's cool.

They haven't lifted a finger and they win the battle

by thanking God in advance. When are you gonna start

thanking God for that breakthrough in your life? You've wanted

it all your life but you haven't been thanking God

for it in advance. You've just been begging like you

have to bargain or bribe or pressure God to say yes.

God wants to say yes. He's waiting for you to

show faith. When are you gonna thank God in advance?

When are you gonna put the choir before the army

in your life? I know people who come late to

church so they miss the music. I'm going, are you

kidding me? That's part of putting the choir before the army.

You need to sing those songs from your heart, because

you have no idea how God is going to use

them during the week. When you thank God in advance,

when you praise God in advance, it's not just singing.

And by the way, you don't have to sound good.

The Bible just says make a joyful noise. Even a

pig can do that when it's eating. Some of you

are prison singers. You're always behind a few bars and

never have the right key. But the Bible just says

make a joyful noise. Anybody can do that. So you

thank God in advance for the answer. Now here's the

final part, the fifth part of a breakthrough prayer. This

is the kind of prayer I'm teaching you to pray

every day for your breakthrough. Number five, expect God to

turn battles into blessings. Expect God to turn battles into blessings.

I want you to notice what happens when you let

God fight your battles. Verse 24 to 26 says this.

When the army of Judah, that's the Israelites, the Jews.

You know, Jew comes from Judah. You know that. And

Judah was one of the largest tribe in Israel. When

the army of Judah finally arrived at the battleground. Okay,

they're a little late to the party. When they get

to the battleground, the valley was covered with dead bodies.

It's already been fought. What? For as far as they

could see, no one had survived. So the battle's been fought.

All they had to do is thank God in advance.

Nobody had survived. They had turned on each other. So

they went out to gather the plunder, the spoils of war.

We could use those swords. We could use those clothes.

We could use that cart. We could use those wheels,

all those things. So they went out to gather the plunder.

And they found huge amounts of equipment and clothing and

other valuables, more than they could carry back. The material

blessing was so big, they couldn't even carry it off

in a day. More than they could carry back. In fact,

there was so much loot on that battlefield, it took

them three days to collect it. That's over an abundance

of God's blessing, material blessing. On the fourth day, They

gathered for a worship service in that valley, which they

named the Valley of Baraka. Baraka. Because the people had

thanked and praised God there. The word Barak means to

bless in Hebrew. The word Baraka means a blessing. And

the valley, the valley of bitterness, the valley of of burden,

the valley of battles was renamed the valley of blessing.

God wants you to live your life in the valley

of blessing, not in the valley of battles. God wants

you to live your life in the valley of Baraka,

the valley of blessing, where there's so much blessing it

takes you three days to carry off the spoils of war.

It's super abundance. It's over abundance. God doesn't want you

to live in the battle ground, in the valley of battles.

You've been fighting this battle against your parents or your

spouse or your kids or the teachers at school or

your boss, and you're in battle after battle after battle

after battle. God says, I don't want you in the

valley of battles. I want you in the valley of blessing.

And I want to bless you so much it takes

you two or three days to carry off all the

spoils because they thanked and praised God there. They renamed

the valley. Now, that tells us the three results of

a breakthrough prayer. The first thing is you get more

blessing than you can handle. You're praying for during now

to the end of the year basically, you're praying for

a breakthrough in your life. You say, how am I

going to know when I've had a breakthrough? Oh, you'll

know it. You'll know it. If you don't know it,

it's not a breakthrough. It's so big. It's so cool.

It's so amazing. God did that. It's not one of

these ones, well, that was kind of a cool little thing,

but maybe I could explain it away as a coincidence

or maybe I just did this. No, no, no. When

there's a breakthrough, you just go, the only way that

could have happened is God did it. And that's what

I'm praying for you. And that's what I'm going to

teach you how to pray for others in the church.

And 18,000 homes are going to be praying for you

So something should be happening in your life. He says

there's more blessing than they can handle. Outdone expectations. God

wants you to live in the valley of blessing. The

second thing that you know you've had a breakthrough is

you love God more and you want to worship him more.

Because when God does that kind of thing in your life,

he just did for these people, you go, God, you

are too cool. You are so great. You are so wonderful.

People say, I don't think I love God enough. No,

you don't realize how much he loves you. When you

realize how much he loves you, you're going to love him.

You're going to love him because nobody loves you like

God loves you. It makes you want to worship God more.

Look at this verse on the screen, verse 27. Then

Jehoshaphat led his troops back to Jerusalem where they joyfully celebrated.

That's called a party folks they joyfully celebrated the great

victory that God had given to them in these 34

days we're going to have some parties break out in

this church and when you have your breakthrough inside your

program each week you can write write it and we're

going to share your story with everybody else When something happens,

I've already received a bunch of these from people who said,

there was no way this could have happened, except I've

been praying three times a day the way God wants

me to pray for a breakthrough. And so you share

your breakthrough story, and it makes you want to worship God.

It makes you want to give thanks. It works out

great that we're at Thanksgiving time while we're studying this.

Today we're giving our Thanksgiving offerings. Why do we do this?

I don't know why you do it. I'll tell you

why I do it. I give a Thanksgiving offering to

God every Thanksgiving. First, God says to do it in

the Bible, but there are three reasons, past, present, and future.

Anytime I give, I give back to God for three reasons. First,

in gratitude for the past. God, I wouldn't have anything

I've got if it weren't for you. I wouldn't even

be alive if it weren't for you. I wouldn't have

air to breathe. I wouldn't have a brain to think.

Everything comes from you, so I give everything. In gratitude

for the past. Then I give to make sure my

priorities are right in the present. Whatever you want God

to bless, you put him first in. Seek first the

kingdom of God. God, I'm saying you're number one. You're

number one in my time. You're number one in my heart.

You're number one in my day. I spend the first

time with you. You're number one in my money. Whatever

I put God first in, he blesses. So past gratitude,

present priorities. And then when I give, it also is

a statement of faith in the future. I'm thanking you

in advance. Here's my thanksgiving, and I'm giving thanks by giving.

Thanks and giving go together. God, I'm giving to you

because I know, just like you've taught me in the past,

you helped me in the past, you're gonna help me

in the future, and you're gonna make what I've got

go further. It's a statement of faith when I'm giving

thanks by giving. The Bible says this up here on

the screen. It says, Deuteronomy 16, celebrate the harvest festival.

That's what they were called back then. before it was

called Thanksgiving, thousands of years ago, to honor the Lord,

your God, by bringing him a Thanksgiving offering in proportion

to the blessing he's given you. So there, we do that. Now,

the third benefit, the third benefit, when you have a breakthrough,

makes me love God more, more blessing than I can handle,

third one is, this is cool, unbelievers start noticing. And

the people who don't know God around you start going,

What is going on in her life? Look at that man.

He has something, some kind of blessing. He's got favor

of God on his life. I mean, he's got the

same problems. That family has the same problems we do.

They're just handling them a whole lot better. What gives?

What's with this? Unbelievers take notice. And when you have

a breakthrough in your life, it is a witness to unbelievers.

It is a witness to people who don't know God yet.

It is a testimony. God gets honored. And you get blessed,

God gets honored. Look at this last verse on the

screen here, verse 29. It says, when the nations surrounding

Israel heard how God had fought and defeated the enemies

of his people, those nations were all afraid to attack.

I guess so. Yeah, yeah, that choir before the army thing. Well,

let's try that one. Yeah. They were afraid to attack.

So Jehoshaphat enjoyed peace and security for the rest of

his reign as king. I like that. That's what I'm

praying for you. Wouldn't you like to have peace and

security for the rest of your life? Breakthrough prayer. Breakthrough prayer.

Not any other way. Let's bow our heads. Let's bow

our heads. Say, Lord, help me to start my prayers

focusing on you, not my problems. Help me to remember

your greatness and your power. And help me to remember

your promises and remind you of them. God, you're great. God,

you're strong. God, there's nothing too hard for you. God,

you're all powerful. You're all knowing. You knew every problem

I'd had long before I was even born. And God,

Are you not the God of heaven who can do anything? God,

did you not help me in the past? And have

you not made promises to me? And will you not

do it again? I'm asking you for a breakthrough. And God,

I'm being as honest as I can that I'm looking

to you, not to a consultant, not to myself, not

to anybody else. I'm powerless. I'm powerless. I can't change

this thing on my own. I don't even know what

to do, but I'm looking to you for help. And

I'm willing to stand before the Lord three times a

day just waiting and watching and listening. Help me to

listen to what you say in your word. To make

sure that I'm in the Bible every single day so

that I'm getting that soul food to grow spiritually. Lord

I thank you for the things that you said in

the past that you're saying to me today to relax

to not be afraid or discouraged thank you God that

it's your battle and you got it you'll handle it

help me to just keep serving and in the position

you put me in to discover my place of service

and help me to just wait and watch and see

what you do And God, today, I want to thank

you in advance. I'm going to stop begging you for

this answer, and I'm just going to start praising you

and thanking you in advance for the answer. Thank you, Lord,

that the check's in the mail, that the answer's already

on its way. I'm going to expect you to turn

the battles into blessings. I'm going to expect you to

bless me in a way that I can't even handle

it And that I will give more back to you

as you give more to me. And as I give

more to you, you give more to me. And I

learn the blessing of generosity, thanksgiving. And I pray that

my life will cause unbelievers to notice that my breakthrough,

the blessings on my life are so great that people

want to know you too. If you've never asked Jesus

Christ in your heart, say, Jesus Christ, come into my

heart and life right now. You be the manager of

all the unmanageable things in my life. You be the controller,

the CFO, the CEO of my life, the chairman of

the board. You be the Lord. I want to learn

to trust you. I want to learn to love you.

I want to learn to have a friendship with you

in the days ahead. And I ask all of this

because of what Jesus Christ did when he came at

Christmas and rose again after his death at Easter And

so I pray this in his name. Amen.