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

Think of it as a car. When you shift from second gear up to fourth gear the engine is still running at the same speed. It’s not working any harder, but you’re going faster. You’re covering more ground. The higher gears have greater capacity. They’re designed to go faster. In the same way, because you’ve kept God in first place, He is shifting you to a higher gear. You will go further faster, not because you’re working harder, trying to make it all happen. No, you’re putting forth the same effort, being your best every day, but all of a sudden you get a good break that thrusts you years down the road. You get a promotion that you weren’t qualified for.

You will look up and think, “How did I get here? It should have taken me another twenty years but here I am.”

“The medical report said it would take me five years to recover, but I did it in six months.”

“It should have taken me most of my career to get into management, but here I am at the age of thirty.”

What is that? God taking you further faster. Part of the shift is acceleration. It will not take as long to accomplish your goals as you think. It will not take as long to get out of that problem as it looks. Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, is breathing in your direction. He is causing things to fall into place. The right people will be drawn to you. Good breaks, opportunities, healing, restoration, favor. It’s not business as usual. You’ve come into a shift. It will be business as unusual.

I talked to a gentleman who’d had a stroke just a few months before we met. He was a young man in his early fifties. Because of the stroke, he’d lost control of his left side. He couldn’t move his left arm. He had to drag his left leg. The left side of his face was paralyzed. I asked him about his prognosis. He told me in slurred speech that his doctors had estimated
that even a partial recovery would take three to five years of therapy if he kept at it five days a week. The doctors said he’d never be able to lift his left arm.

I told this gentleman what I’m telling you. God can speed things up. He is in control. I encouraged him to keep believing. Keep hoping. I saw him six months later. The first thing he did was lift his arm way up in the air. He said, “Joel, give me a high five.”

“I thought you said it would take five years to do that?” I said.

“That’s what they told me, but I did it in less than two months,” he replied.

His therapist told him that in thirty years he’d never seen such a speedy recovery.

What happened? God accelerated things. You may think it will take you thirty years to get out of debt, thirty years to pay your house off. You’ve already run the numbers, calculated it all. By the time you’re 107 years old you will be debt free. Yeah, you will be in Heaven debt free! No, you don’t know what God is up to. You don’t know what God has already destined to come across your path. One phone call like we received, one contract, one good break, one inheritance, and you’re totally debt free. You’re into overflow. Now you need to get ready. God is saying, “It will happen sooner than you think. I am shifting things in your favor. You will come into acceleration.” What should have taken you a lifetime to accomplish, He will do in a split second of time.

Now don’t talk yourself out of it.

“Well, I don’t know, Joel. I don’t have the seniority.”

“I have all these college loans, this debt.”

“I’ve gone as far as I can.”

Be a believer and not a doubter. You may not see a way, but God still has a way. Your attitude should be: “God, I’m in agreement with You. I believe You have shifted things in my favor. You are taking me further faster. I will accomplish my dreams sooner than I think. I will overcome these problems quicker than I thought.”

When you do that, Almighty God will open doors that no man can shut. He will connect you to the right people. His favor will thrust you years down the road. Back in 1949, a young minister named Billy Graham
traveled around the country holding meetings in large auditoriums. He was having success, but he wasn’t really nationally known. That summer he conducted a meeting in a big tent in Los Angeles. A gentleman by the name of William Randolph Hearst showed up to hear Billy Graham speak. Mr. Hearst owned newspapers all across the country. He was so touched that night he sent a message to all of his publishers to write favorable articles about Billy Graham. The next week the whole country was talking about this young minister. Reverend Graham came to national prominence practically overnight because of this one man.

What was that? A divine shift. God taking him further faster. It could have taken Billy Graham his whole lifetime to gain that kind of respect and credibility, but God used one man to show him favor and opened doors that took his ministry to a new level.

Now the good news is God has already lined up the right people for you. They are already in your future. It’s just a matter of time before they show up. They will open doors that you could not open. They will show you favor even though you didn’t ask. They will use their influence to make you look good. They’re ordained by God to accelerate His plan for your life.

What’s interesting is Billy Graham didn’t search out Hearst. Instead, the newspaper chain’s owner searched out Billy Graham. You don’t have to try to find the right people. You just honor God and the right people will find you. They’ll pick you out of a crowd. They’ll knock on your door. They’ll show up at your office. For some reason they will want to be good to you.

That’s a divine connection. God will cause them to use their expertise, even their funds, to take you further faster. Here’s what will happen: You will accomplish more in less time. You will be promoted beyond your education. You will increase beyond your experience. The right people will help you go where you could not go on your own.

The Scripture tells us about the first miracle Jesus ever performed. He turned water into wine. He had just attended a wedding. Afterward, He went to a big reception, and right in the middle they ran out of wine. Jesus’ mother, Mary, came up and told Him about the problem. Jesus said, “Mom, why are you telling me that? I can’t do anything about it. My time has not yet come.”

I can imagine Mary just smiled and said to the workers, “Do me a favor. Whatever He asks you to do, just do it.”

Mary knew what He was capable of.

There were six stone water pots over to the side. They held about thirty gallons each. Jesus said to the workers, “Fill those pots up with water.”

They filled them up. Then Jesus said, “Now dip out some of the water”—which He had transformed into wine—“and take it to the host of the party.”

When the host tasted it, he called the groom over and said, “This is amazing. Most people serve the best wine first, and then when people have had a lot to drink and don’t know any better, they’ll bring out the less expensive wine. But you’ve done just the opposite. You saved the best wine for last.”

I read up on how long it takes to make wine. It’s a very lengthy process. It starts with the planting of seeds in the ground. The grapevines have to grow and produce their fruit. The grapes have to develop. When they get mature and just right, workers pick the grapes and eventually the grapes are made into wine. The process from the time they plant the seed to the time they have wine is typically three to five years. And that’s just average-quality wine.

The higher-quality wines take between five and seven years to make. To increase the quality and make it more valuable, often they will age the wine, put it up on a shelf, and leave it for years and years. You’ve seen wine that’s twenty or thirty years old. That would be considered the best wine.

Here’s what I want you to understand: in the first miracle Jesus ever performed, He created fine wine, a process that should have taken twenty years, but He did it in a split second. The twenty-year winemaking process was accomplished in a moment of time.

Maybe it should take you years to recover after an illness. But just like Jesus sped up the process of making wine, He can speed up the process of healing. Maybe in the natural it should take you thirty years to pay off your home mortgage. You’ve run the calculations but they are based on the laws of economics. The good news is, God has a faster calculator. He can give you one good break that will allow you to pay off your mortgage on His much faster schedule.

A woman visited our church while in Houston awaiting a liver transplant at the medical center. She had just been approved for the list of recipients. Doctors told her it could take between three and five years. She wasn’t sure she could make it that long. I encouraged her that God could heal her without the transplant, or God could speed things up and she’d get her new liver sooner than the doctors had predicted.

We prayed and she went on her way. A few weeks later I saw her back in the Lakewood Church lobby again. She smiled real big and said, “Joel, you are looking at a woman with a brand-new liver.”

She received a call from the hospital just two weeks after she was put on the transplant list. It just so happened a perfectly matched liver for her had become available. It wasn’t suitable for anyone else on the list. Her doctors said, “If you can get here tonight, this is your liver.”

She jumped on a plane, drove to the medical complex, and immediately went into surgery. The good news was there were no complications. She said, “Joel, I feel better today than I’ve felt since I was a teenager.”

What happened? God turned her water into wine. God took what should have taken five years and did it in one month’s time. If you too will take the limits off God you will see Him do amazing things. You’ll look up and say, “How in the world did I get to where I am?”

“I’m not the most qualified, but I’m running the company.”

“I’m not the most talented, but they all ask me for advice.”

“I never went to seminary, but I’ve got a pretty big church.”

Or, “It should have taken me till I retired, but I’ve already paid my house off.”

One touch of God’s favor can put you thirty years down the road. One good break, one promotion, one inheritance, or one divine connection can make a huge difference.

“Well” you say, “Joel, you’re just getting everybody’s hopes up. I don’t believe God will accelerate things in my life. I don’t believe this will happen for me.” Then this book is not for you. This is for believers! This is for those who will rise up and say, “Yes, Lord. I know You’re the God of Acceleration, and if you did it for the wedding party centuries ago, if you took a twenty-year process and did it in a split second, then I know You can accelerate things in my life. I know You can thrust me years ahead.”

I have a friend who is now thirty-two years old. I’ve known his family for many years. His parents are good people and they love the Lord, but they’ve maintained the same lifestyle for thirty years. They’ve stayed at the same level as their parents and grandparents. There is nothing wrong with that, but I believe God wants every generation to build upon the accomplishments of the last.

Right after he graduated from college, he went to work for a major corporation. My friend, their son, had a big vision for his life. His dream was to one day lead a major corporation. He was hired to begin at the very bottom level of this big company. He started in sales. He just kept giving it his best day in and day out. After three years he was in the top 5 percent of sales. They promoted him to manager. The next year he landed a new account. It was the largest account in the company’s history. That one good break immediately made him the top salesperson by far. At twenty-eight years old, he was appointed vice president. He was in charge of the company’s entire southwest division.

Things continued to fall into place. His boss left and went to another company. My friend earned another promotion. The CEO of his corporation was only fifty-one years old. It looked like he had another twenty years in him. But one day, unexpectedly, he went to the board and said, “I’m resigning and I would like to nominate this young man as my successor.” They voted my friend in as the top man and today, at thirty-two years old, he is the youngest CEO in that corporation’s history. He is running a major company with thousands and thousands of employees.

That is God accelerating things. In the old days my friend’s rapid rise in the corporate world would have taken a lifetime, but in these times God is turning water into wine faster than ever before. If you will believe, if you will put your trust in Him, if you will live to honor God, then as with my friend, God will give you good breaks. He will open the right doors. He will move people out of the way. He will cause you to stand out in a crowd. He will let His face shine down on you, and you will accomplish goals in a fraction of the time.

This is what happened to David in the Bible. God put a big dream in his heart as a teenager. David knew one day he would accomplish great things. But year after year went by, and he didn’t see anything happening.
He was stuck out in the lonely pastures taking care of his father’s sheep. Nobody knew him. He didn’t have any influence. No one paid him much attention.

I’m sure young David felt like he was falling behind, like he would never get to where God wanted him to be. One day David went into battle and faced Goliath. He didn’t have any military training. All the odds were against him, but he knew the Most High God was with him. When David defeated Goliath in a split second he became a national hero. In an instant, he had this influence and credibility that could have taken him his whole lifetime to earn otherwise.

What happened? God turned his water into wine. One touch of God’s favor thrust him many, many years ahead. What’s interesting is God used an obstacle to promote David. When you face giant obstacles in your own life—disappointments, setbacks, things don’t work out—don’t become discouraged. That adversity could be the very thing God will use to promote you. That could be where you see God speed up the time and you accomplish something that should have taken your whole lifetime.

Like David, you may feel like you’ve fallen behind. Maybe you are not where you had hoped to be in life. You have big dreams in your heart, but you haven’t caught any good breaks. Doors have closed. It’s easy to get discouraged. But let me challenge you: if you will just keep being your best day in and day out, if you will live a life that honors God, He will not only make up for lost time, He also will thrust you further. He will do more than you can even ask or think.