Touré Roberts - Bridges and Breakthroughs

The Lord revealed to me the Lord you know put out there for me to embrace, pursue, and dig into it and present to you the idea of bridges. I believe that 2021 is going to be a year of bridges and breakthroughs. As I was preparing this, we are obviously going to cover a lot of ground today, and then we’ll be in this series until the Lord says stop. But I have to be honest with you; when I sought the Lord for a passage of Scripture to ground the series, He did something unusual. He gave me a passage that I have never preached from, but it is very near and dear to my heart. This passage for me is sacred to my identity; it’s sacred to my sense of calling. It is so close and dear to my heart that I almost felt funny about preaching from it. You know what I’m saying? Have you ever had these intimate conversations with God, these intimate realities? Maybe there are passages of Scripture or things that God has said to you, prophetic words or what have you. And this passage right here, I almost feel like—it’s not that I’m trying to keep anything from you, but it’s so close to me. This passage literally is the clearest instruction that God has given me about my purpose and calling. And God said to share it, so it’s Isaiah 62:10. This is the passage that will be our foundational text, and then we’ll move into what we’re talking about. And this is my gold; that’s why I’m wearing gold—just kidding! But this passage, I mean, I almost get emotional when I read it because of the years I’ve been walking with God, having some moments where some are more difficult than others, and God continues to say these things to me. This is Toray Roberts right here, and the word says in Isaiah 62:10, «Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway; take out the stones; lift up a banner for the peoples.» Father, I’m praying right now for the peoples, for those who are watching and those who are listening right now, those experiencing this moment. I pray for them, Father, as I’ve found great encouragement, inspiration, revelation, and confidence through words and passages like this throughout the entire span of my ministry that have shaped me and I believe are fundamentally responsible for who You’ve called me to be and for the anointing that I continuously have access to. I pray that You would do the same for the peoples, that when we come out of this series, they will never doubt who they are, but they will know what their calling is and what their purpose is, and they will walk in heaven’s affirmation of what You’ve called them to. Give me in this moment the spirit of wisdom, revelation, insight, and knowledge. Lord, may my heart be overflowing with Your love for Your people, that they might sense You nearer than ever. I thank You, God, for clarity, for power, and for victory. In Jesus’ name, amen. Hallelujah! Well, let’s get into this, family! I’m excited to share it with you. As I mentioned when I started talking about 21 bridges last week, God spoke to me about bridges. He just basically gave me the word «bridge.» Sometimes God will give you a word, and there’s so much more to the word than what God has given you. That word becomes your obsession, and because God gave it to you, you recognize that it needs to be unpacked, so you start digging into that word. As I started digging into that word about bridges, you do what every preacher does: you go to the biblical concordance and type in the word «bridge» or whatever word it is you’re studying, and you want to find it in Scripture, right? So that’s what I did. I thought, «Okay, God, speak to me about bridges.» Obviously, You speak through Your word and through the Spirit, but You speak through the word. So, let me try to find in the Bible everything that was written about bridges. I go to my concordance and put in the word «bridge.» Nothing shows up. I’m like, «Oh, okay, maybe it’s ‘bridges, ’ not ‘bridge.’» Okay, I missed it. So, let me put in «bridges» and guess how many passages of Scripture I found when I put in «bridges» instead of «bridge»? Zero. The word «bridge» is not in the Bible one time—not once, not one time. So here God gives me a word about bridge or about bridges, and I go to the Bible to try to find it, and I can’t find the word even once. But I cannot deny that bridges are all in the Bible. In fact, the Bible itself is a bridge. God is a bridge. It was really powerful. See, sometimes when God is speaking, He doesn’t have to say it explicitly. It’s almost like when was the last time you were driving down the street and saw a car on the side of the road? No, it’s just a car.