Dharius Daniels - It's Time For a Breakthrough

The author of Ecclesiastes is a winsome and wise sage named Solomon. In chapter three, verse one, Solomon offers some incredible insight that is connected to what I want to communicate to us over the course of these next four weeks. Solomon suggests that life can be and should be a compilation of seasons. He says quite clearly in Ecclesiastes 3:1, «There’s a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.» I would argue and contend that although this is the intention of the Eternal, it is not always our experience. Because if we aren’t conscious, calculated, and careful, life can not only be a compilation of seasons; it can also mutate into a compilation of cycles. The cycle and the season are not the same. Seasons change with time; cycles change with us. Seasons are entered into and exited from. Cycles can be a time and a space where we enter into something and never exit out of it. With seasons, such as the one we’re in—winter—if we can just make it to June, somebody say «hurry up June,» then we will be free of the variables associated with winter, such as cold weather. But cycles, on the other hand, are quite different because time can change and things don’t. Am I making sense? If a person is in a pattern of stagnation and/or dysfunction for most of their life, that is not a season; that’s a cycle. A cycle is a season we get stuck in, and it functions almost like a proverbial hamster’s wheel, where we are exerting energy, extending effort, growing weary, but going nowhere. It’s when we are in a season where time is changing, but the relationship isn’t. Time is changing, but the resources aren’t. Time is changing, but the mindset isn’t. Time is changing, but my peace isn’t. Time is moving, but my life is standing still. That’s not a season; that’s a cycle. And cycles can be demoralizing; they can be disappointing; they can be discouraging because no human wants to spend life on a hamster’s wheel. Hamsters will create quandaries of sorts because we can invest so much energy and effort trying to break a cycle we are unable to break, which brings discouragement. Then on the flip side, we are dealing with a degree in a dimension of at least education and discomfort. We want to change, but we’re tired of trying to change and can’t change. So we want to quit changing, but we hate the state of not being able to change. Therefore, we don’t want to stay the way that we are, so we’re mad when we don’t change, and we’re mad because we want to change and can’t. The enemy likes to use that too, to infect us with hopelessness that things will never change. However, God, I believe, wants to use this series to reveal to us another aspect of His identity. He is not just your Creator; He is not just your Comforter; He is also your cycle breaker. He is the God of the breakthrough; He specializes in stagnation and is the God of movement and advancement. He specializes in moving things; what is unmovable becomes movable because it has to bow to the power of our God. Am I making sense? There are instances throughout Scripture where we see examples of this. In Mark chapter 5, there’s a woman who has a cycle that doesn’t end for twelve years. She hears that Jesus is passing by, and she says to herself, «If I could but touch the hem of His garment, this cycle will break.» There was a woman who was in the synagogue where Jesus was teaching, and the Bible says she had an undisclosed infirmity that caused her back to be bent over for eighteen years. Now don’t judge it because we all have some places where we’re not straight. I didn’t hear you, L.A. I said don’t judge it; we all have some places that are not straight. But what happened is Jesus didn’t deal with her crookedness; Jesus dealt with the infirmity that was causing her to be crooked. Because some people aren’t crooked because they’re evil; they’re crooked because they’re infirmed. And until you deal with the area where they are unhealthy and infirmed, they will not be able to get upright in that area. Am I making sense? So she is sitting in the synagogue, and Jesus, as He is done teaching, looks at her and has this prophetic exchange with all the people in the room. He looks right at her and says, «Woman, thou art loosed from your infirmity.» The infirmity left her, and a woman who had dealt with crookedness in her back for eighteen years was able to break the cycle because God is the God of breakthrough. There’s another amazing example in John chapter 5, where there’s an unnamed man with an undisclosed infirmity who superstitiously places himself by a certain pool called Bethesda. He is dealing with this infirmity for thirty-eight years, the Bible says. And Jesus walks over everyone else sick in the area and stops where this man is lying. That’s favor. He steps over everybody else and stops where this man is. That’s favor. See, some of you are upset and agitated by the fact that God is relentless in His pursuit of you. You feel like, «Why won’t God just leave me alone?» That’s favor on you. He won’t let you stay where you are. That’s favor. That every time you get ready to give up, something inside of you quickens and awakens you to try again. That won’t let you live dysfunctional; that won’t let you live unbiblical.