Break Out!: 5 Keys to Go Beyond Your Barriers and Live an Extraordinary Life (2 page)

Before they left, the captors gave the Israelites their gold, silver, and jewels. What happened? The Israelites came into a shift. God changed the mind of their enemy. Proverbs says God can turn the heart of a king. We may not be able to change people’s minds, but God can. He controls the whole universe.

You may have people in your life like this, some who don’t like you, a boss who is hard to get along with, or a family member who is disrespectful. It’s easy to become discouraged and to think, “This will always be this way. They will always be against me.”

No, stay in faith. God has a shift coming. God knows how to cause them to like you. God can cause them to see you in a new light. They may have been against you year after year, but when God shifts things they’ll go out of their way to be good to you. Instead of hindering you, they’ll help you.

Bottom line: God will not allow any person to keep you from your destiny. They may be bigger, stronger, or more powerful, but God knows how to shift things around and get you to where you’re supposed to be.

I have a friend who worked for someone he never liked. Nobody at the company liked this young supervisor, who was condescending and a source of frustration year after year. At first, it looked like this young man could be supervising at this company for another twenty or thirty years.
My friend has a good attitude, but deep down he thought, “Putting up with this guy for a long time will be a real pain. I don’t know if I can take it.”

Then, one morning he arrived at work, and management called a staff meeting. They explained that the young supervisor’s wife had been transferred to another state for her job. The unpopular supervisor had resigned that morning.

Half the staff fell on their knees and offered a prayer of thanks to God! What happened? A divine shift. Suddenly, God changed things.

Quit worrying about those trying to hold you back. God knows how to move the wrong people out of your life and bring the right people in. And even if God doesn’t move them, it says in Psalms, “You can run through a troop and leap over a wall.”

God can cause you to go over them, or around them, or even through them, but God will get you to where you’re supposed to be. The truth is, you are one shift from seeing a dream come to pass. One shift from paying your house off. One shift from seeing your health improve. One shift from meeting the right person.

It says in Isaiah: “This is God’s year to act.” Not next year. Not five years. Not in the Sweet By and By. This is the year God will shift things in your favor. He is lining it all up. What you could not make happen on your own, God will cause you to accomplish. It will be bigger than you thought. It will happen quicker than you imagined, and it will be more rewarding than you ever dreamed possible.

In Genesis 48, there is a story of Jacob when he was an old man very close to death. His son Joseph came to visit him and say his good-byes. He and his father were very close. Joseph was Jacob’s favorite child. He was the youngest son. You may remember him as the child to whom Jacob gave the coat of many colors.

At one point Jacob thought Joseph was dead. The father was very sad until he found out Joseph was alive and living in Egypt. They reunited just as Jacob was about to pass. Joseph was standing before him with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, Jacob’s grandsons.

Jacob said, “Joseph, I will bless your sons as if they were my own children.”

The right hand in those days always gave the greatest blessing. It belonged to the firstborn son. That was the tradition. So Joseph put his oldest son, Manasseh, in front of Jacob’s right hand and his younger son, Ephraim, on his left.

Jacob was nearly blind. When he went to give the blessing Jacob crossed his hands and put his right on the younger son, Ephraim, and his left on Manasseh, the older son.

Joseph said, “No, Dad. You can’t see. I had them lined up. I put Manasseh in front of your right hand. He deserves it. Give him the greater blessing.”

Then Jacob said something very interesting. It gives us insight into our God. He said, “No, Joseph. I’ve crossed my hands on purpose. Ephraim may have come second, he may have been in the back, he may not deserve it. He didn’t qualify for it. He is not next in line, but I’m shifting him to a new position. I’m taking him from the back up to the front. I will give him what he doesn’t deserve.”

That’s the way our God is. He has shifts in your future that will put you in positions you didn’t earn, you didn’t qualify for, or weren’t next in line to receive. Maybe you didn’t have seniority, but God, just like He did with Ephraim, will cross His hands and say, “I will move them up from the back to the front, from not being qualified to suddenly being qualified, from being looked down on or disrespected to being honored and seen with influence and credibility.”

When you move up some people will be bothered by it. They’ll think: “That’s not fair. I worked harder. I have more seniority.” But the fact is, it’s just the goodness of God. He said because you honor Him, He would give you houses that you didn’t have to build. You would reap from vineyards you did not plant.

That’s God crossing His hands, giving you what should have taken years to earn. God is saying to you what Jacob said to Ephraim, “I will bless you on purpose. I will move you up. I will accelerate your dreams. I will give you what you didn’t deserve. I’ll shift you into a position you could never have reached on your own.”

We can all make excuses: “Joel, this is not for me today. I’m not qualified. I’ve made too many mistakes. I don’t have the talent, the size, the personality, the confidence.”

God says: “I know all that. I created you, but I’m about to cross My hands and bless you in such a way that everyone will know it’s Me and not you.” Now don’t talk yourself out of it.

Moses said, “God, not me. I stutter. I can’t go speak to Pharaoh.”

God said, “Moses, don’t worry about it. I’m crossing My hands. I’m giving you what you need.”

Gideon said, “God, I come from the poorest family. I’m the least one around here. I can’t lead this army.”

God said, “Gideon, don’t worry. I’m crossing My hands. You’re coming into a shift. I will move you from the back to the front.”

David could have said, “God, I’m too small, too young, too inexperienced. There’s a whole army of talented, successful, confident warriors who can face Goliath.”

And God would have said, “David, I know that. I could have chosen them, but I’m crossing My hands. I’m moving you up from the background to the foreground, from the shepherd field to the battlefield, all the way to the throne.”

Esther could have said, “God, I can’t go in there and speak to the king. He will not listen to me. I’m an orphan. I don’t have any influence.”

And God would have said, “Esther, don’t worry. I’ve got you covered. I’m crossing My hands. I will give you respect, credibility, honor that you didn’t deserve, you didn’t work for.”

A shift is coming! Whatever level you are at now, God is about to cross His hands and put you in a position you never could have reached on your own. He will give you what you weren’t in line to receive.

Why don’t you start expecting unprecedented favor, believing for God to do something new in your life? I know you can say like me that God has been good to you. You’re blessed and healthy and you have a good family and a great job, and that’s all perfect. But I can tell you that you haven’t seen anything yet!

God has shifts in your future that if He showed you now you wouldn’t believe. It’s exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond. You think you’re hitting on all cylinders, but if you only knew what God has in store. It’s like you’re in second gear. You’re making progress. You’re healthy. You’re moving forward. But God is about to shift you out of second, past third,
past fourth, into overdrive. You will see the surpassing greatness of God’s favor.

Because you’ve honored God and lived with excellence and integrity, God will take you beyond your training, beyond your education, beyond your income, beyond where anyone in your family has gone before you. This shift will put you at a place where you look back and say, “Wow, God. You have amazed me with Your goodness.”

When the Israelites were in the desert headed toward the Promised Land they had manna to eat each day. It was similar to bread. After a while they grew tired of it. They complained to Moses that they didn’t have any meat to eat. Moses told God about their concerns. God said, “Moses, I will give you meat not for one day or five days or twenty days, but for a whole month.”

Moses said, “God, that’s impossible. There are two million people out here. Even if we butchered all of our flocks, all of our herds, we wouldn’t have that much meat.”

God replied, “Moses, is there any limit to My power?”

He was saying, “Just because you don’t see a way, Moses, doesn’t mean
I
don’t have a way. All I have to do is shift a few things around and I can bring it to pass.”

That’s what God did. Numbers 11:31 says, “God shifted the wind and brought quail in from the sea and caused it to fall into their camp.”

Notice how good God is to His children. They didn’t even have to go out and hunt or fish. The quail came to them. They just went out of their tent and picked up as many as they wanted.

What am I saying? God knows how to shift things so that blessings come to you. The right people search you out. Good breaks find you.

I have a friend who works for a professional sports team. He wasn’t raised in church. He started watching our program and he gave his life to Christ. He decided to get into a good Bible-based church. All he owned were very casual clothes, T-shirts and jeans, tennis shoes. He went to a church and they were very accepting, like ours. It doesn’t matter what you wear, but he had a desire to dress up to go to church. He had never owned a suit before. He went to the mall and looked at some different suits, but
they were more than he wanted to spend. He could certainly afford them. He was just very frugal.

One day he was running an errand and he randomly met this man. They struck up a conversation. This man found out how my friend worked for the professional sports team. The man told my friend that he loved going to the team’s games, but so many of them were sold out he rarely had the chance to buy tickets.

My friend is very generous. He said, “A lot of times I have extra tickets. I’ll call you and you can come to a game.”

The man attended a game, and afterward he thanked my friend. “You’ve been so good to me I want to do something good for you,” he said. “I own a clothing store. I want to make you a custom-made suit.”

The last time I talked to my friend he said, “Joel, I have sixteen custom-made suits. He’s given them all to me. Eight sport coats, a tuxedo. My whole closet is filled with dress clothes.”

When you honor God, when you’re good to people, kind, compassionate, and merciful, the blessings will come looking for you. Like the quail, you don’t have to go after them. God will shift things to cause the right people to come across your path. God will put you at the right place at the right time so provision, opportunity, comes to you.

Zechariah said it this way: “It’s not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of God.” That word
spirit
in the Hebrew means “breath.” It’s saying it will not happen just by your talent, just by your connections, just by those you know. It will happen because God breathes in our direction. God shifts the winds and blows healing and promotion, restoration, our way.

How will you get well? The medical report says it’s impossible? No, God is breathing healing your way. Health, wholeness, and restoration are headed toward you.

How will you accomplish your dreams? You may not know the right people or have the money or feel like you have the talent. But God is breathing ideas, resources, and the right people.

If you will stay faithful and just keep honoring God, like my friend discovered, suddenly things will change, suddenly you come into abundance, suddenly your child straightens up, suddenly you get well.

A few years ago, one of our faithful church members suffered a major stroke. He was only in his midfifties, but he was paralyzed on the left-hand side of his body. He couldn’t walk or talk. The prognosis wasn’t good. He was told that with intense therapy he might regain his speech, but he would never walk again.

For two years he had no feeling on the left side of his body. He was in a wheelchair and had to have constant care. It didn’t look good, but this man kept coming to Lakewood. He knew all God had to do was shift the winds and blow healing and restoration his way.

One morning he woke up, and suddenly he began to have feeling on the left side of his body. The doctors, the therapists, the nurses—they were amazed. They couldn’t understand it. Long story short: a few weeks later, he walked into Lakewood with no help for the first time since he had that stroke.

He spoke clearly. He didn’t stumble when he walked. He didn’t limp. He walked like nothing had ever been wrong. What happened? He came into a shift. God breathed in his direction. What he could not do in his own power, in his own strength, suddenly became possible.

You may have struggled in an area, your health, your finances, with a relationship, for a long time and you keep wondering, “Will this ever change?” God is saying, “Yes. A shift is coming. I will shift you out of sickness into health. I will shift you out of lack into abundance. I will shift you out of struggle into ease. I’m about to cross My hands and give you what you do not deserve.”

Now you need to get ready. You are coming into a shift. Because you have been faithful and honored God, I believe and declare, God will put you in a position you could have never gotten to on your own. Doors will open that have never opened before for you. What should have taken you forty years to accomplish God will do in a split second. You’re coming into acceleration.

Suddenly, a dream comes to pass. Suddenly, a promise is fulfilled. Suddenly, the negative turns around. You need to get ready for the surpassing greatness of God’s favor!