And David came to Baal-perazim, and he smote them there, and said, The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like the bursting out of great waters. So he called the name of that place Baal-perazim [Lord of breaking through]. (2 Samuel 5:20 AMP)

In the first part of this series, we established the fact that God loves us despite the challenges we face. If you want to experience breakthroughs in life, never doubt the love God has towards you. Let me share two passages from the bible, then, we look at another interesting point to take note of.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39 KJV)

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16 KJV)

These are 2 confessions you should be making. Paul said “I am persuaded that nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus”. John spoke in the same light. He said, “I have known and believed the love that God has to me”. What confessions! Imagine you wake up every morning saying,”I have come to know and to believe the love God has towards me and I am fully persuaded that nothing can separate me from that love which is in Christ Jesus”. Before long, you’d be smiling your way out of crises. The tougher the crisis, the louder you should confess God’s love.

Today, pondering over how we can get breakthroughs, I have decided to ask a question. Why are you in that condition? Could it be you are the cause? We are quick to put the blame on people for the crises in our lives. We blame our parents, the government, the church, even some people blame the color of their skin. Perhaps if they were whites, they thought to themselves. Perhaps if they were Americans. Perhaps if they weren’t born into that family. We can blame everybody except ourselves. But I have learnt from Kenneth E Hagin that if the Word of God is not working in your life, the first thing to do is to check up on yourself. God doesn’t have to do any checking up on Himself. His Word is true. His Word is a never-failing remedy for all situations. Do a little checking up on your life. Is there sin somewhere in your heart that is short-circuiting the power of God in your life? Is their bitterness within you? Some years ago, I heard God tell me through a sermon I was listening to, to get bitterness out of me. Many people are bitter; bitter against their spouses, against their parents, against their bosses, against the church, against God. Bitterness will ruin you. It will keep you in bondage, even the prayers of a thousand anointed ministers of God will result to nothing. Why are you bitter? Do a search of the word ‘bitterness’ in your bible, and you’d be amazed at what it can cause. Hebrews 12:15 reads “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled”. Bitterness troubles. Bitterness in one man can defile a community. It can hinder your breakthrough from coming. Check up on your love walk with God and your fellow man. The bible says faith works by love (Galatians 5:6). Are you walking in love towards your fellow man? Walking in unforgiveness will hinder you. No matter how justified your anger may be, the only hindrance to faith Jesus taught us is unforgiveness, when He taught on faith in Mark 11:23-25. You must forgive. You must let go. Unforgiveness will hinder you. Another thing to check up on is your tongue. What are you saying? Are you griping and complaining, speaking evil of people and yourself? Friend, get all the prayer warriors in the world to hold a vigil for you every night, if you don’t change what you say, you will never get breakthroughs. Your tongue drives your life. Complaining kept Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. Perhaps, if you had been praising God, you would have gotten out of that trouble. What did Paul and Silas do when they were thrown into prison? Wait a minute, friend, why were they thrown into prison? For doing God’s Work! But I thought Jesus said “I will be with you till the end of age”. Oh yes, He said that. So why did they beat them and throw them into prison? Why didn’t He deliver them, when it was His business they were after? He did deliver them. When they turned the heat on Satan, when they began to praise God in the midst of the problem, when they began to shout in the face of the crisis,”Satan, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us”, when they refused to gripe and complain, when they refused to bewail their condition, when they stirred up heaven with sweet melodies of praise, God showed up. He will show up for you, but you can’t spend 2 hours in prayer and 22 hours complaining and expect God to show up! Switch on the heat. Let hell know there are people who believe God enough, to dance in the furnace, to use lions for a pillow, to sing praises to God even with bloodied bodies. In all these things, we are more than conquerors. We are not the people who complain, we are worshippers. I don’t know about you, but I choose to worship God. It’s my choice, what’s yours?

Get out the doubt, run fear away, get out the sin, get out the hindrances. If you have strayed away from God, come back. Maybe you stopped fellowshipping with Him, come back. He will accept you. Maybe you have said so many bad things, yeah yeah, with God there is mercy. Whatever it is, just get back and make it straight with God. God is ready to help you, but the question God is asking today is, “Are you ready?”. I see God standing as a Bridegroom, waiting for some reader today to prepare himself or herself as a bride, ready for the Bridegroom. Make yourself ready. Solomon said,”Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes” (Song of Solomon 2:15 KJV). The little foxes! They spoil the vines! Take them out. That little sin, that little anger, that little self-pity, that thing the Spirit of God is pointing out to you now, that little pride, it may look little, but it will spoil the vines, and hinder you. Don’t give any chance to Satan to hinder you. “Neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27 KJV)