I had the privilege of hearing Chuck Yeager recount his experiences at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum with Parker’s Cub Scout troop. Right outside the IMAX Theater where Yeager gave the speech, the Bell X-1 is symbolically suspended in midair, along with other historic aircraft and spacecraft. Each one represents a breakthrough. Each one is a symbol of the impossible becoming possible. Each one is a testament to the ingenuity and irrepressibility of the human spirit, which of course, is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Just like the sound barrier, there is a faith barrier. And breaking the faith barrier in the spiritual realm is much like breaking the sound barrier in the physical realm. If you want to experience a supernatural breakthrough, you have to pray through. But as you get closer to the breakthrough, it often feels like you’re about to lose control, about to fall apart. That is when you need to press in and pray through. If you allow them to, your disappointments will create drag. If you allow them to, your doubts will nosedive your dreams. But if you pray through, God will come through and you’ll experience a supernatural breakthrough.
Sonic Boom
Almost like a sonic boom in your spirit, there comes a moment in prayer when you know that God has answered your prayer. In that moment, your frustration and confusion give way to quiet confidence. Your spirit becomes like a sea of glass because you know it’s out of your hands and in the almighty hands of God. The natural resistance that was thwarting you turns into supernatural momentum that is propelling you.
I remember the moment when I knew in my spirit that God was going to give us the last piece of property on Capitol Hill that we had been circling in prayer. I didn’t find out we got the contract until my trip to Peru, but I knew we were going to get it, even after we lost it. We were having a relatively routine staff meeting that turned into a prayer meeting. We got down on our knees, but I felt like that wasn’t low enough. I felt so dependent and so desperate that I ended up flat on my face. The next thing I knew, I was crying uncontrollably. My body was actually heaving as I cried out to God for an answer.
Those moments of absolute brokenness before God are too few and far between. Usually self-consciousness gets in the way, but not that day. I lost it. And to be perfectly honest, it was embarrassing, but if you are embarrassed for righteousness reasons, then it’s holy embarrassment. And when you get to the point where you care more about what God thinks and less about what people think, you’re getting close to the breakthrough.
I think our staff was taken a little off guard, but they prayed with me as I prayed through. They formed a prayer circle around me. And when you agree in prayer, it’s like a double circle. At some point, when I felt like I was falling apart, there was a sonic boom in my spirit. It was like the shifting of tectonic plates deep within my soul. Doubt gave way to faith. I knew that I could quit praying because I had prayed through. It was a done deal.
Daniel Fast
At critical junctures in my life I’ve done a Daniel fast. It’s called a Daniel fast because it’s inspired by and patterned after the fasts that Daniel did at critical junctures in his life. It’s different from an absolute fast because the diet generally consists of fruits, vegetables, and water. And it is typically done with a specific goal and defined timeline in mind. It was a ten-day fast that kick-started Daniel’s precipitous climb to political power; it was a twenty-one-day fast that ended with an angelic encounter.
When you fast and pray in tandem, it’s almost like a moving sidewalk that gets you to your desired destination in half the time. Fasting has a way of fast-tracking our prayers. Because fasting is harder than praying, fasting is a form of praying hard. In my experience, it is the shortest distance to a breakthrough.
Listen in to these words spoken to Daniel:
“Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”
Can you imagine having a conversation with your guardian angel? It’ll be one of our most revealing conversations when we get to heaven, but Daniel got to have a short conversation on this side of the space-time continuum. For some of us, it’ll be an awfully long conversation because we kept our angel awfully busy. This is certainly true of Daniel. I can’t help but wonder if they had a little side conversation about the lions’ den.
Like all angelic greetings, it begins with “do not be afraid.” I guess that’s angelic protocol. Then the angel reveals the realities of the spiritual realm in a way seen nowhere else in Scripture. We know that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but this encounter fleshes it out. The angel reveals the importance of praying through. The angel reveals the spiritual warfare being waged beyond the curtain of our consciousness. The angel reveals the way prayers are processed.
Daniel’s prayer was heard before the words even passed through his vocal chords, but it wasn’t until the twenty-first day that he experienced a breakthrough because of spiritual oppression. An evil spirit known as the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted the call for angelic backup until the twenty-first day.
I can’t help but ask a counterfactual question: What if Daniel had quit praying through on day twenty? The answer is simple: Daniel would have forfeited the miracle the day before the day. I don’t know where you are on the timeline between praying through and breaking through. Maybe you’re at day one; maybe you’re at day twenty. Either way, you can pray with a holy confidence, knowing that with each prayer circle you are one prayer closer. Don’t give up. Like Daniel, the answer is on the way!
Empty Stomach
There is more than one way to draw a prayer circle. In fact, sometimes it involves more than prayer. I believe that fasting is a form of circling. In fact, an empty stomach may be the most powerful prayer posture in Scripture.
Even Jesus said that some miracles are not possible via prayer. Some miracles are only accessible via prayer and fasting. It takes the combination of prayer and fasting to unlock some double dead bolts.
When I have a big decision to make, I circle it with a fast. It doesn’t just purge my body; it also purges my mind and spirit. When I need a breakthrough, I circle it with a fast. It doesn’t just break down the challenges I’m facing; it also breaks down the calluses in my heart.
Maybe there is something you’ve been praying for that you need to start fasting for. You need to take it to the next level. You need to draw a double circle by fasting for your children or for a friend or for your business.
I’ve tried to make fasting a regular routine by doing a Daniel fast at the beginning of the calendar year. During this year’s Daniel fast, I felt led to pray for seven miracles. I know what you’re thinking: Is that all he ever does? You’re probably wondering if I have a fixation with the number seven too. I promise you, I don’t. And the truth is that I’ve only done this twice in my life. I don’t even come close to believing for the quantity and quality of miracles that I could or should.
It had been several years since writing seven miracles on a rock, and I believed that God wanted to stretch my faith again. Instead of writing them on a rock, I downloaded the Evernote App and double-thumbed these prayer requests into my iPhone.
I was two for seven the last time. I’m five for seven this time. And these seven miracles are bigger than the last seven miracles.
One of the seven miracles I prayed for was a $1 million payoff of our mortgage on Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse. During the fast, we paid off that million-dollar debt. In fact, we paid off all of our debt. And so in the past twelve months we’ve acquired more than $10 million dollars in property and we’re debt free for the first time in ten years! Only God.
But the biggest mir
acles aren’t financial. The biggest miracles are the hundreds of people who have submitted their lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ. At our last baptism, a couple dozen NCCers publically professed their faith. We ask every baptism candidate to write out the testimony of how they came to faith in Christ, and I could barely read them through my tears. Each one is a testament to God’s sovereignty and a trophy of God’s grace.
The Genesis
Now let me ask you a sequential question: When did the breakthrough happen for Daniel? Was it the moment Daniel started circling on day one? Or was it the moment he had prayed through and experienced the angelic breakthrough on day twenty-one?
The answer is both/and. Every breakthrough has a genesis and a revelation, literally and figuratively. There is a first breakthrough and a second breakthrough.
Let me retrace the circle.
“The moment you began praying, a command was given.” This one revelation has the power to change your perspective on prayer. It will inspire you to dream big, pray hard, and think long. The answer is given long before it is revealed. It’s not unlike the Jericho miracle when God said He had already given them the city, past tense. Do you realize that the victory has already been won? We’re still waiting for its future tense revelation, but the victory has already been won by means of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is finished. This isn’t just when God made good on grace; it is when God made good on every promise. Every single one is yes in Christ. Past tense. Present tense. Future tense. The full revelation won’t happen until His return, the return that Daniel prophesied, but the victory has already been won, once and for all, for all time.
After the miraculous purchase of the last piece of property on Capitol Hill at 8th and Virginia, I thought God was finished, but God was just getting started. The great danger when God does a miracle is that we get comfortable. That’s when we’ve got to stay humble and stay hungry. If we aren’t careful, we can lose faith simply because we already have what we need. That isn’t just mismanagement of a miracle; it’s gross negligence. One reason God does miracles is to stretch our faith so we can draw bigger circles so He can do bigger and better miracles.
Honestly, I was exhausted from four months of drawing circles around 8th and Virginia, and I was satisfied with our footprint. That’s when someone in our congregation with more faith than their pastor said, “We need to believe God for the entire block.” At first a city block seemed like too big of a circle to draw, especially with property on Capitol Hill going for $14 million an acre. But it was like there was a sonic boom in my spirit. I knew that God wanted us to go after the auto shop on the corner of 7th and Virginia Avenue. The problem is that it wasn’t even for sale.
I knew that the auto shop would be a thorn in the flesh if we didn’t buy it, because it was an eyesore. So we started praying, and to be honest, I wanted an easy answer for once. Ironically, the auto shop proved to be even harder. The owners weren’t just resistant to offers; our realtor told us that they had torn up contract offers in the faces of those offering them — offers that were nearly $2 million more than our original offer. It felt like an impossible fight unless God was fighting for us, but if God was fighting for us, then I knew the victory was already won.
I knew we couldn’t just pray for this miracle. It had to be coupled with fasting, so we did a variety of fasts over several months. I also felt like our entire staff needed to lay hands on this property, so we took a little field trip on September 15, 2010. As we laid hands on those cinder block walls, it was a genesis moment.
For several months, our negotiations remained at an impasse. The problem was that they had all the leverage. They knew we wanted it and needed it, and they didn’t want or need to sell it. Our only leverage was prayer, but prayer is a long lever. We circled that property so many times that I’m almost surprised the walls didn’t fall down just like at Jericho.
On January 15, 2011, four months to the day after laying hands on it, I was on a flight to Portland, Oregon. When the plane landed, my phone showed a text message from our realtor telling me that the deal was done. I couldn’t believe it and I could believe it.
The question, of course, is this: When was it a done deal? Was it a done deal on January 15? Or was it a done deal back on September 15? The answer is both/and. The genesis was laying hands on that auto shop on September 15; the revelation was a signed contract on January 15. As of January 15, 2011, we might be the only church in America that owns both a coffee shop and an auto shop.
One Resolution
Every miracle has a genesis moment.
In the first century BC, it was a circle in the sand drawn by a sage named Honi. For Moses, it was declaring that God would provide meat to eat in the middle of nowhere, even though he had no idea how. For Elijah, it was getting on his knees seven times and praying for rain. For Daniel, I think it traces back to one resolution.
Destiny is not a mystery. For better or for worse, your destiny is the result of your daily decisions and defining decisions.
Daniel made the decision to stop, drop, and pray three times a day. Those daily decisions add up. If you make good decisions on a daily basis, it has a cumulative effect that pays dividends the rest of your life.
Along with daily decisions, there are defining decisions. We only make a few defining decisions in life, and then we spend the rest of our lives managing them. Maybe you’ve made some bad decisions that have gotten you to where you don’t want to be. The good news is that you’re only one defining decision away from a totally different life.
Daniel makes one of those defining decisions as a teenager. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it changes the course of his story and history. Daniel’s ascent to power traces all the way back to one resolution.
Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine.
Daniel risked his reputation by refusing the royal food. It was an insult to the king, but Daniel was more concerned about insulting God. Daniel knew it would violate Jewish dietary laws, and while that may not seem like a big deal, if you obey God in the little things, then God knows He can use you to do big things! It was Daniel’s unwillingness to compromise his convictions in the little things that led to his big break. Daniel did a ten-day fast that won him favor with the king’s chief official and that favor translated into his first job with the administration. Then “the favor of him who dwelt in the burning bush” kept opening doors via a series of promotions until Daniel was second-in-command to the king.
I wonder if Daniel ever had one of those out-of-the-spirit moments when he looked in the mirror and asked himself, “How did I get here?” The answer: daily decisions and defining decisions. Never underestimate the potential of one resolution to change your life. It can be a genesis moment. Daniel’s destiny traces all the way back to one resolution not to defile himself, but making the resolution was easier than keeping it. That is where prayer, coupled with fasting, comes into play.
Try, Try Again
In May of 2009, Brian and his wife, Kristina, were watching the movie Fireproof. It was both a genesis and a revelation. It was a revelation because Brian knew that his addiction to pornography would tear his marriage apart, just as in the marriage portrayed in the movie. It had been tearing him apart since he was twelve. It was a genesis because Brian, like Daniel, resolved not to defile himself.
Brian and his college sweetheart were married in 1995, but he continued to look at porn while she was at work. He thought he could stop when they had their first child. No such luck. Then, after watching Fireproof, he prayed that God would help him quit cold turkey. Six weeks later, he failed. A year later, after winning some battles and losing some battles, he gave it to God once again. Six weeks later, he failed again. Then on June 29, 2010, he nailed it to the cross where Jesus had won the war against sin.
The Enemy of our souls is known as “the accuser of our brethren,” and when it comes to the brethren, most of Satan’s accusations have to do with sexual
sins. For men, the spiritual battle is often won or lost on the battlefield of sexual temptation. And when we lose a battle, the enemy wants us to give up the fight. Can I remind you of something the enemy knows all too well? You may lose some battles, but the war has already been won. And while the Enemy never stops accusing us, our Almighty Ally never stops fighting for us, never gives up on us.
On October 8, 2010, Brian celebrated one hundred days of being porn free. It was the longest period of freedom in a quarter century. That’s the night the men’s group at his church formed a prayer circle around him and prayed for purity of mind; they prayed for strength of will. Brian hasn’t been the same since. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be more battles to fight. The war never ends. It doesn’t mean he can stop circling. He’s got to pray through. But Brian is now helping other men as a Life Group leader at his church, leading men through a study of Stephen Arterburn’s book Every Man’s Battle. Brian is winning the battle because Christ already won the war. He is now praying circles around the men that God is bringing into his circle of influence.
What I love about Brian is that despite repeated failures, he kept trying. Most of us quit trying after six circles or twenty days or two failures. In case you missed the message the first time, if you keep trying, you are not failing. The only way you can fail is if you quit trying. If you’re still trying, even if you’re failing, you’re succeeding. God is honored when you don’t give up. God is honored when you keep trying. God is honored when you keep circling.
There is an old maxim: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. The saying dates back to the early 1800s and comes from The Teacher’s Manual written by American educator, Thomas H. Palmer. It was intended to encourage American schoolchildren to do their homework, even when it gets hard, because persistence pays off.
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