Breakthrough:

Finding Peace, Prosperity & Purpose @ Work

By Alan Ross

The Beginning

He knelt at the foot of the bed. “Jesus, please forgive me. I need to break through to you Lord. I want to see with your eyes. I want to hear what you hear. I want to feel what you feel. Please help me Lord.”

That was the day it began.

Brought To Our Knees

           Three months into a Children’s Ministry learning center service, Alan and Ed were feeling good about their contribution. When people in the church would praise the work of the two business owners who somehow ended up together in a class of thirty first graders, we would smile and say, “God is doing some neat things with this group of kids,” but inside they were proud of how well the class was going. Alan felt that he was a big part of their success.

Alan and Ed meshed well in the classroom. Ed was thankful to let Alan be the showman and Alan was thankful for Ed’s willingness to dress up and play different characters along with him. They made a great team.

The day started as any normal Sunday school class would. Kids dribbled in, being greeted by Miss Nancy at the door. Nancy was a stalwart in Learning Center, a lead teacher known for bringing out the best in her assistant volunteers.

Linda and Sue were also volunteering this term, glad that Alan and Ed were taking an active role. Linda was a quiet nurturing mom, who could calm the fears of any child who felt out of place and Sue was an organizer, willing to whip up a batch of cupcakes or track down the supplies for the day’s craft time.

But it was Alan who shone. His creative teaching talents, high energy and ability to make a bible story come alive were the centerpiece of any Sunday. The lesson today was more difficult than most, less action and more impact, but Alan was looking forward to it. He wanted the kids to really grasp the love that Jesus had for each one of them.

Twenty minutes into the class, while everyone sat in their small groups drinking juice and eating crackers, two visitors came in and Miss Nancy steered them over to Alan’s group of eight. “Mr. Alan, this is Andrew and he is in Kindergarten and this is his brother Mathew. Mathew is in 2^nd grade.”

It seemed odd to Alan that neither boy was a first grader. Their parents must have averaged their grade level and decided first grade would be the place for them.

“Hi guys”, Alan said, but neither boy acknowledged him. Miss Nancy simply smiled and went back to her small group. For the entire time they sat in the group, the boys seemed to be alone in their own little world. They responded to each other, rudely talking over anyone else who was speaking, but never acknowledged the other kids or Mr. Alan. It made it difficult to hear the prayer requests of the kids for the small group prayer time, and even more difficult to pray as a group because Mathew and Andrew were talking together as if the rest of them didn’t exist. Alan was glad the story was about to begin. He didn’t particularly like being ignored by a couple of little kids.

For story time, everyone gathered around Miss Nancy while Alan left the room to get prepared. Dressed as Nathan, the storyteller, a character he had developed, he burst into the room and made his way slowly through the kids sprawled out on the floor. They loved this character that laughed loudly, hugged easily and could bring excitement to even the drollest tale.

“What did Jesus think about first graders?” Nathan asked. “Well let’s find out.”

“Once, when he was teaching the adults in a town called Capernaum, the parents of the town brought their children to be blessed by him. The house he was teaching in was packed, with people standing out the door trying to hear what Jesus was saying.”

Ed was dressed as a father, a young girl dressed as his daughter. They stood at the edge of the crowded room, waiting to see the master.

“Move over. Stop pushing. Hush back there.” Nathan animated the different characters, moving quickly between the kids, as if they were in that very house. He brought the story to life, nudging one child, whispering into the ear of another and straining to see through the back of those seated at the edges of the circle. It was this creative ability that the kids loved and the rest of the church was talking about. Alan felt like he had come into his own as Nathan, the storyteller.

“There were some parents in the town who wanted Jesus to bless their children, so they came to the house, asking the disciples to let them see Jesus. The disciples said, ‘can’t you see the teacher is busy. We cannot interrupt him now to bless your children. He is doing more important things, teaching us about God in heaven. Go away with your children’ “, Nathan bellowed in his best righteous religious voice. It was the voice he learned to use for the religious leaders of Jesus’ time, for the pious ones who came face to face with God, yet could not see or understand Him.

Ed played the downcast father, kept away from the master’s blessing by the disciples.

“And what do you think Jesus said?” Nathan asked as he sat in front of the group. This was the time in the story where he would quietly refocus the children on the real meaning of the bible story. Now, Nathan pointing to Ed and his daughter asked again, “what do you think Jesus said to this man and his little daughter?”

Right then, Mathew, the 2^nd grade visitor who until now had not said a word, let out the loudest burp he could. It was long and loud and timed to be a rude response to Nathan’s question. The children lost it. Human gas, in any form, is an automatic crowd pleaser to young boys. Soon, other boys were trying to mimic the burp. One little guy had his hand under his armpit, trying desperately to make the sound his dad told him he used to make when he was a boy. The class was in chaos. Even the little girls laughed and giggled, focusing less and less on Nathan and more and more on Mathew.

While Miss Nancy and the other teachers helped restore order, the story never quite came off the way it was supposed to. While he did finish it, obviously most minds were elsewhere. It was disappointing for Alan because he had hoped to make an example of how much Jesus cared for and loved each child in the room by bringing the little girl, dressed up as a child during the time Jesus walked the earth, up into his lap and bless her the way he imagined that Jesus blessed each one of those children.

“She looked up into the face of God and saw how much He loved her” was the line he planned to use as he laid his hand on her head. It would have been special, yet none of the children seemed to be captured by the story, distracted by the terribly rude behavior of the visitor, Mathew.

At the end of the class, children were free to go and find their parents, except for visitors who had to stay until their parents arrived to sign them out. The teachers sat in the back of the room, supposedly talking about next week’s lesson but in reality they were helping Alan host his own special pity party.

“Man, that was really tough,” Ed said. “I’m sorry I lost it too Alan, but that was about the best burp I have ever heard come out of a kid.” Ed was one of the “kids” who lost it when the burp rang out, finding it difficult to come back into character.

“Those boys really messed up today’s class,” whispered Sue. Your story was so touching. I just wish you could have made your point.”

“It was a wonderful story,” said Nancy. “I am so sorry for what happened. The mom said that she wanted them to stay together, that they have never been in church, so she brought them to first grade. I should have insisted they go into their own class.”

As the pity party for Alan continued, a paper airplane flew from the other side of the room and struck Alan just above his left eye. That was it. Now he could deal with these two hooligans.

Alan sat down in front of them, stood them before him, side by side and began.

“You boys ruined today’s story. Do you realize that? We let you come into this class to stay together and you were really rude. This was a story that many of these kids wanted to hear and you really made a mess of it.” Alan went on for a few minutes and the more he talked, the more he began to break through. He could tell that the boys were listening because their defiant, “I don’t even hear you” attitude was replaced by a shoulder slumped, close to tears, solitude.

“When your mom and dad get here…” Alan started, but before he could finish Andrew, the littlest one broke into tears. Alan sat quietly before them. Two boys poorly dressed for church, dirty faces and bad attitudes were what he saw.

‘What kind of parents do these kids have’, he thought to himself.

“We…we… don’t have a daddy” Andrew muttered between sobs.

Mathew nudged him. He began to cry softly. “Stop it Andrew” he said.

Alan was confused. These two defiant boys, totally oblivious to anyone but themselves were now two little lambs, emotional and broken before him. He had not expected this. “I don’t understand?” he asked. “Mathew what is going on?”

For the first time, Mathew acknowledged him. He looked into Alan’s eyes and Alan looked back into his soul. Through the tears, he whispered quietly, “We do have a daddy. He left home last night. He left us.”

Alan’s heart broke. It was the first time he would hear the “still, small voice” of God. “Alan, their mom brought them here to find me. They found you instead.” And then, he understood.

Later that day he knelt before his bed, wondering what he had become. How could he have missed it? How could he have been so blind to the pain that all he could think about was himself? How had he become so religious and self-righteous to be so blind and to be so deaf to what those boys needed? He felt spiritually bankrupt.

And so he prayed, “Jesus, please forgive me. I need to break through to you Lord. I want to see with your eyes. I want to hear what you hear. I want to feel what you feel. Please help me Lord.”

That was the day he learned that Jesus has a broken heart. That was the day the breakthrough began. That was the day… and I am that man.

The 1^st Stepping Stone

 Breakthrough

            My grandfather was a Welsh miner. My grandmother related this story to me when I was a young boy.

“It seemed like your Grandpa Eddie lived in the mines. He used to say that miners worked the mines like farmers the soil. They loved it and hated it both. He and his mates were used to small cave-ins. The big one, the one likely to be their tomb was always in their minds but seldom on their tongues. It was considered bad luck to talk about it, even among the women. But we lived with the fear of it every day.

I remember the day the bells rang out. Although we had heard it so many times before, I knew this one was different. These were bells calling me. Your grandpa and a few of his lads were trapped hundreds of feet below the surface in Pembrokeshire. Some of us ran to the mine entrance. Normally I would wait to hear, wait to be called. I hoped that God would see to it that I was never called. This time God called me.

I ran to the mine entrance. Some other wives, small children in tow, began to gather near the entrance, praying for the best but fearing the worst. In those days cave-ins almost always led to death.”

As a boy, I never really understood the fear she must have felt. Now when I reflect back, I think when Granny O’shea told us the story, she was back there, back at the entrance to the mine.

My sons have volunteered to work in missions in West Virginia for several summers. My youngest, Michael seems called to it. I don’t think he realizes where that call comes from. Both of my sons, Michael and his older brother Patrick have a love and compassion for the families of the mines that is deeply rooted into their spiritual DNA. I wish they could have known their great grandmother O’shea.

She continued her story. “Your Grandpa Eddie and a few of the others worked feverishly to free themselves, knowing that the more effort they exerted, the more precious oxygen they used. Time was not with them. The harder they tried, the less likely they were to survive.

Not knowing how much rubble separated them from freedom, they could only hope, and pray, that they would soon break through. The light from their oil lamps had to be extinguished to preserve oxygen. Only one lamp would remain lit to guide their efforts. Hope was growing dimmer and dimmer. Breathing became more difficult with every exertion. Exhaustion, doubt and fear crept in from the edges of the darkness.”

“At some point the crew chief shouted, ‘that’s enough lads. We have to stop or we’ll never survive.’ In those days, if you didn’t break through soon, you were likely not going to. There were no big machines like today. Drillers were turned by hand and the shovel and pick were the tools of the trade.

‘Stop! Have ye’ gone daft?’ replied one of his workers. It might have been my Grandpa Eddie. ‘If we stop, we’ll never get out. I’m not just going to sit hear and die. We’ve got to try. We’ve got to do something.’

Just then they heard it, the rumbling sound of rocks and boulders being grinded and smashed. ‘Listen. They’re out there. It’s the driller. They’ve found us.’ The rocks and boulders blocking their exit began to shift.

And then, the most glorious sight any of them had ever seen poured from behind the wall that had trapped them. Light! Light so bright and powerful that it filled every crevice and crack of their potential tomb. They had broken through. Your Grandpa Eddie was alive. He came home with me that very night.”

At this point Granny O’shea would look down at me, smiling. I always paid rapt attention to her stories. Her beautiful Welsh accent was more like a song than a story. She never talked a lot, but when the two of us were sitting quietly alone in the early evening, she would light up. Later in the book I will share another story about Granny O’shea, one that demonstrates the remarkable love of God and the power of prayer to touch generations.

Many years later I asked her what Grandpa Eddie had said about that time in the cave-in. She chuckled and said the strangest thing was that the men were digging at one side of the shaft and the break through came from a different side. They would never have been able to dig themselves out. They had to be saved from the outside.

She said, “I told you Eddie, that God is always digging you out of the things you dig yourself into. He acted like he didn’t want to hear that, but I can tell you this, he certainly never left the house for the mine after that without telling me, ‘Pray Alice. Pray for us.’”

The Christian walk, that long transition from salvation to eternity, is much like the miner’s tale. We try tirelessly to break through to something more, to something deeper, yet we often end up exhausted and spent, wondering what it all means. How real is this life we live? How relevant? Yet when we least expect it and usually from no effort on our own, God breaks through. From his side. In his way. In his timing.

We know the difference too, between a breakthrough due to our efforts and one because of him. When God breaks through, for a brief moment we glimpse that light, that wonderful, powerful light that lights up our spirits. I think it’s his way of saying, “See what awaits you.”  There is a song that says, “Our future’s so bright, we’ve gotta wear shades.” Our eternal future may be, but is that true about our temporal one?

I can honestly say that I expected a lot more out of my faith walk than I have experienced at times. I know I am not alone. While there are a few who seem to walk only in the high places after their salvation, for most of us it seems like an endless series of ups and downs. Is that what you were expecting? Shouldn’t the Christian life be more powerful, more relevant and more desirable than that?

If I am a child of God, a joint heir, a friend of the King of Kings, why does it seem that I am still a servant, a slave to the flesh and the old way of things? I thought I was crucified with Him. Why does this flesh keep resurrecting itself? Looking at my life, I wonder if someone who doesn’t know God would want what I have.

These doubts, desires and unfulfilled expectations are the “cave-in” realities of many Christians, especially those who toil in the business world. If I have heard it once, I have heard a hundred times, “I wish I could quit my job and do full time Christian ministry.” The truth is we are all in full time Christian ministry if Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. Our place of ministry is the place that needs it most. While churches all too often have become sanctuaries, separate worlds for Christians to hide in, God is at work in the midst of the people. That’s how Jesus did it. He walked among them. He still does through us.

My passion is Christ in the business world. I have spent the past twenty years deliberately trying to make that a reality in the companies I work with. While there are many ministries involved in this call, it seems that it won’t catch hold until it becomes a movement, a movement of God in the marketplace, led by, powered by and completely dependent on his Holy Spirit.

It likely will not be well organized. Good. Men try to make ministries while God is in the movement business. At best we can only follow. At worst we can totally squelch the Spirit by controlling the movement. As a former leader of a business ministry, I can tell you from first hand experience that the best that we ever did was when we allowed God to do it through us. The minute we got too strategic, too controlling and too focused on God blessing our plans was the moment we stopped following and lost our way.

Like the miner intent on freeing himself, we toil away, trying to break through to God. All the while He is the one removing the boulders, the obstacles to our faith and the barrier to His light. All our efforts will prove futile. Breakthrough begins when we realize that we can’t and that He will.

I have been a sheep, content to stand in the field and know that my eternity was secure. All I wanted was a safe place to eat my grass, raise my lambs and take it easy. Every now and then I would wander over to the fence and try to nibble outside the confines, but soon I would come safely back into the middle of the rest of the sheep. Our closeness was comforting because we all knew there were wolves out there. Worrying about them was the shepherd business, not mine.

But the call to something deeper led me to become a shepherd myself. We have far too many sheep without a shepherd. I believe God said, “Be obedient, and follow me.” And so I left the safe confines of the sheepfold and now I am walking with him in the unsafe places. To me, that is the world of enterprise, capitalism and work. We are truly working in the midst of wolves.

At first I learned. I was discipled by those God had called out from the sheep years before. Gayle Jackson, Don Kline, Pat McMillen, Smith Lanier. I could list hundreds of shepherds who were part of my disciple making process. Finally I realized that as God is training us to be shepherds; he is also training us to be “shepherd makers.” That is the essence of this book

If you are content to be a sheep, then be a sheep. But if God is calling you to the unsafe places, to gather and protect more sheep, then  it is time to allow him to break through and get you out of your spiritual cave-in. Ah! the sweet smell of the rarified air beyond the confines of our spiritual darkness. Breathe deeply of it because it is yours, if you are called to be a shepherd in the marketplace. It is the way it is meant to be.

Illustrated below is a principle I have used for several years now in training shepherds in the business world. It is a powerful example of what many Christians are experiencing as we seek to balance, career, family, fellowship, finances and fitness. We seem to be caught in the wrong end of a J curve, trapped at the bottom, trying desperately to break through to a more meaningful and abundant life:

The J Curve Illustration:

The key elements to breaking through are within the illustration. As simple as it seems, there is significant depth to every aspect of it. For instance the mere definition of shalom is an undertaking itself. What a powerful word! Shalom! I use it here as the overall place we are trying to reach between here and eternity. In reality it is more of a state than a place. If I can find shalom while I am still here, then the rest of my life has such greater meaning than if I believe I will never achieve it until eternity.

Seeking and finding shalom is why God leaves us here after salvation. It has to be, otherwise when we come to him, we would be snatched out of here. God has us remain for a purpose. I believe shalom is that purpose and when we find it, look out. While the simplest translation of the Hebrew word shalom is peace, it is much more meaningful than our English word peace. It is peace that comes from above in the midst of any circumstances. It is the assurance that God is with us and will never leave us and that if he is for us, how can we lose?

The seven components of shalom are the meat of this book. Taken individually, this could quickly become a recipe for success, but God never intended any of these desires and needs to be taken alone. They are an integrated whole. If I believe that I can find Financial Freedom first and that because I find it I will have the rest, then I am misled down a potentially destructive path. Within each of these components we must seek God and then he will add the rest.

In every component we must first deal with the barriers to breakthrough. There is a lot of wrong thinking, wrong teaching and ultimately wrong beliefs in the body today. Each of us must understand which wrong beliefs we have accepted as biblical truth when in reality they may not be true at all. There are many. For instance, one of the biggest wrong beliefs that many Christian leaders, both in the church and in business believe is that God needs them to accomplish his work. How sad and how wrong. God will allow us to participate, but we bring nothing but obedience. He uses our talents, our skills and our experience. It’s him, not us that matters.

When our energy and effort is directed at breaking through the barriers that keep us from finding shalom in specific areas of our life, frustration, stress, depression, anxiety and suffering are the fruits we produce. When that effort and energy is redirected, through the Breakthrough Plan, to those areas that we do have control over, where there are no external barriers, the results are amazing. Simple changes will create bountiful fruit.

Often, as the J Curve illustrates, there will be times when we may need to move backward, or down the bottom of the J Curve, in order to move forward to fulfillment or up the open end of the J Curve. As simple as this all sounds, it is amazing that so many people have trapped themselves into the bottom end of the curve, exerting more energy and effort at changing the things we cannot, rather than decisively choosing to be transformed by the power of Christ in our lives.

Yes he can move mountains, but often it is us who he is trying to move, not the barrier he has allowed or placed in front of us. Learning to know the difference and choosing the right path to shalom in every area of our lives is the essence of the breakthrough.

My purpose for writing this book is simply to share the stories of men and women who are experiencing breakthrough in their lives, including mine. I may be writing this book but I can assure you I am still very much excited about learning along with you. It seems I learn when I teach. I can’t wait to see what happens by the end of this process.

One thing I am certain of is that once the Light shines through, everything changes. It is my hope and my fervent prayer that God will use this book as part of His movement in the marketplace, worldwide.

In the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis presents Christ as Aslan the lion. Whenever Aslan moves, the entire forest senses it. “Aslan is on the move,” is such a powerful statement, rife with meaning and expectation. Well, Aslan is on the move in the marketplace. The Spirit of God is breaking through, if we will only rest from our toil, our attempt at breaking through ourselves, and allows His light to shine on us.

Once that happens, we will never be the same again. Every aspect about life, especially our purpose for our work, changes. It’s as if the blinders come off and we can see clearly. Is that a desire of your heart, to have meaning and purpose? If you are at the point of surrender, then you are ready for the breakthrough. It’s not a secret. God has been revealing to his people from Adam to Alan, yet too often we choose to make it difficult, more mysterious and definitely more religious.

Paul asked the Galatians, “Who broke in on you? Who caused you to stop running the race so well?” It was religious people, trying to teach the Galatians to pick up their picks, to close their eyes to the truth and to toil away at the wall of separation. Thank God we no longer have to use those tools. Thank God for revealing Himself to us. Isn’t it time for us to see the light?

Our chapters are laid out as stepping stones. There is a good reason for that. More than just a gimmicky way of breaking up the sections, the stepping stones are the process that God uses to guide us. The first potential destructive lie we have to deal with is that God calls us to some ministry, or vocation, pastoral or otherwise. I can’t seem to find that process in the New Testament. It may be subtle but it is profound none the less, that God calls us to only one thing; obedience. From that he leads us along a path, stepping stones, and it is on that path that we find shalom. It is the process, the journey, not the destination.

Too often we “claim the call” and then spend the rest of our lives trying to direct our own paths. Picture this! Jesus says to Levi, “Follow me” and Levi runs off down the road yelling, “I’ve been called. I’m going to be a pastor.” He was called to follow. Period. He ended up being a marvelous author, writing the book of Mathew. I wonder at what point in the process, on what stepping stone, Jesus revealed that to him. Definitely not on the first one!

At the end of each stone, there is a Breakthrough Plan section that I hope and pray proves valuable to you. Please take a few moments to rest awhile before you proceed to the next stone. There is no rush to finish this book. You won’t be graded. I would be so glad if you would use these Breakthrough Plan pages to visit with God for a time, to seek his insight into your life and your path. This book will be so much more meaningful to you through this process.

He will guide you from stepping stone to stepping stone, revealing the path along the way. One of the most profound yet simple things I have learned in my personal walk and one that is repeated over and over in the lives of those who have gone before us is how God participates in the process of our self illumination. I think he does it in such a way as to keep us from being discouraged by what we continue to find in our own hearts. The close I get to him, the less I feel like I ma being transformed into his likeness.

When God reveals himself, we pale by comparison. The more clearly I see him, the more clearly I see me… and I am not pretty. But I am in process and that is the profundity of how God works. The closer I get, the less I value what I bring and the more clearly I see and desire him. That is how he illumines our souls. His light is pure and perfect therefore what we see when it shines will be less than him. But we are being transformed and that transformation always begins with illumination.

Had the religious and political rulers truly seen themselves as God saw them, they would never have crucified Christ. They would have turned and repented and cried out “Hosanna”, save us. But we have the opportunity to see with his eyes, feel with his heart and to hear with his ears and it will change us forever.

Each of these Breakthrough Plan pages will build upon future pages. When you are finished with the book, you will have journeyed along a path to finding “shalom” and you will be blessed for having walked it.

Stepping Stone One                                                                 Breakthrough Plan

What is it that you are doing for God? _______________________________________________

At your church? ________________________________________________________________

Through your work?  ____________________________________________________________

In your community? _____________________________________________________________

Honestly, examine your heart. What is your reason for doing these good things? Are you trying to gain favor with God or with man? __________________________________________________

How great is your sense of pride about these things? ___________________________________

Take a few minutes to consider the barriers that you face in achieving Spiritual Contentment:

What are the Time barriers? ______________________________________________________

The Relational Barriers? _________________________________________________________

The Physical Barriers? ___________________________________________________________

The Financial Barriers? __________________________________________________________

The Career Barriers? ____________________________________________________________

Look back at your barriers and determine which ones that you exert some control over versus those you have no control over. It is easiest just to circle the ones you have some control over.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Are you willing to pray?

‘Lord, let me see with your eyes, let me hear with your ears and let me feel with your heart”? Consider it before you do it because this may be the most important and significant prayer of your life.

The 2^nd Stone

The False Promise

The story I shared in the prologue was the beginning of my own personal breakthrough. I have heard so many others that mirror my own. They may have different circumstances but similar aspects of breakthrough. In all of them, there seems to be the common thread of Christian men and women, coming to a point in their walk with God that they are willing to ask, “Is that all there is?”

Honestly, I expected more of salvation. Where is the constant happiness, the peace that surpasses understanding and the direct revelation from God that so many in the bible experienced? Thomas got to see Him in the flesh. I’d just like a simple vision or two. Too often evangelistic fervor, as well intentioned as it is, promises something that Christ never promised. That is one of the most important discoveries I have ever made. I thought He promised heaven on earth. Actually he promised troubles or persecution or even martyrdom. When did all of that change? Was it supposed to be different because we are in modern times or living the good life in western civilization?

We know that it never changed, but that our 20^th century promise of prosperity caused us to assume that the good life was the life He promised. It is hard to expect troubles and persecution in the midst of the most prosperous times in the history of humanity. Combine that with the “hell-sent” message that God promises riches rather than prosperity and that shalom starts with an “$” and soon you have the recipe for disaster.

A very large number of the Christian business leaders I know, and I have met many as the head of a Christian business owner’s ministry, are under the false assumption that God needs their success so they can give to the church, as if God needed the money. Can’t you just picture it? God sits in heaven ringing His hands over a lack of funds to do ministry.

You would be surprised at how many good, well-meaning people act as if this was the case. And when they give to God, amazingly they get to keep the rest. “God gets one. I get nine. God gets another. I get nine more.” We have allowed the stewardship model to replace the call to obey. While the parable of the talents is a great illustration of the faithfulness and excellence of stewards, it is not meant to be our life plan. Burying our heads to turn ten into twenty is not the call of God.

What really motivates our desire for success? That is one of the most important questions we must grapple with as we approach breakthrough. “Where your heart is, there will be your treasure.” In practice many of us have turned it around to “where your treasure is, there will be your heart.” Too often we try to hold on to what is not ours, all the while mouthing words that say it is God’s. I know I do.

If it is true that it is God’s – and we are mere stewards – why did we allow our greed and fear to lose so much of God’s money during the last market bust? Do you think God was surprised that his stocks went down? What is your treasure? If it is financial independence or success, then that is where our hearts, our inmost desire and passion will be. And that is the last place he wants it to be.

In subsequent chapters we will deal with financial provision from a uniquely different perspective. For now let’s just accept the fact that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and that regardless of your financial condition, financial independence will not lead to a breakthrough with God. In fact it may well be the biggest boulder in the way. Neither riches nor poverty are a necessary ingredient to the abiding life. Financial freedom is.

So, if it is not success that leads to breakthrough, then surely it must be significance. In the business world, success and significance often go hand in hand. There is a growing movement to separate the two since so much success has been driven by greed and a lack of integrity, built on the backs of employees and investors. Significance can come in the political, business, entertainment and even religious world. For me, significance has always been my issue. I wanted to be someone of importance to other people, someone others would look at and say “There goes Alan. What a great guy for God.”

In the story I began the book with, it’s clear that my motives were good. I really was doing something significant for God. Everyone told me so. That’s part of the problem. When we are being praised up and down for what we are doing for God, we must ask ourselves, is that why am I doing it? Do I really love the attention? Am I bathing in the accolades, all the while piously giving God the glory? How can He get any glory from what I do? I have nothing to offer Him, yet it is amazing how prideful I became over my offering. It was a blemished and worthless offering that I took great pride in.

What are you offering God that gives you significance? Money? Good works of service? Avoidance of sin through your own discipline? Bible study? Morning Prayer or quiet time? What is it that you secretly feel good about as you do it for Him? I know how touchy this can make us because all of these things are good things that we are called to do. They are not harmful. They are supposed to bring us closer to Him. Yet, often the good things we do to gain significance, even significance with God, are actually in the way of allowing God to bless us as significant because of what He did.

In the beginning of breakthrough you won’t find success. You won’t find significance, even religious significance. You will find only one thing, surrender.

The nature of Christians in the business world, especially business leaders, is to act. Quick actions are required to succeed in business and those who are seen as the movers and shakers are often the ones chosen to lead. Leadership often means greater financial rewards and greater financial rewards leads to greater personal freedom, or so we are taught to believe. It is time to expose the “False Promise of Prosperity”, that God helps those who help themselves.

At work, the performance review and development process is built upon the notion that you will be rewarded and promoted based on how you perform. While that may be true in a career sense, it is far from the truth in a spiritual sense. If Jesus Christ were to be reviewed under a normal performance appraisal program, I fear he would have been terminated for coloring outside the lines. Now we begin to see the tension between the way of the world and God’s way. As a Christian at work, how do I handle the apparent paradox? Do I just turn my career over to God and pray that my boss will follow him? What if that boss is a heathen, brow-beating God hater?

What we end up doing is exerting incredible amounts of energy and effort, much like Grandpa Eddie, trying to break through in the wrong place. While it might seem effective, and even seem rewarding at work, ultimately it leads to exhaustion, frustration and shattered dreams or broken families.

The first reaction most successful Christian business people have when they first hear about the J Curve is to appeal to their sense of responsibility for results. We are groomed to believe that way from the moment we enter kindergarten. Our performance is what matters. Our performance is what produces results.

We are either fatalists or Calvinists if we believe otherwise. Worse we might have even become part of the new generation of “victims.” So where do our own personal skills and abilities to “make it happen” come into the equation? It is time that we understood and applied an old truth:

Everything we do through the Spirit of God is eternal and valuable. Anything we do through our own efforts, even good things, apart from the Spirit of God is meaningless.

Wow! Where does that leave us?

It is the deeper message of the exchanged life that the apostle Paul so passionately lived for. But exchanged life living and business leading seem almost diametrically opposed. My personal experience in hundreds of companies has helped me see the difference. More importantly, it has helped me develop a pathway to breaking through all of the barriers that seem to keep us from the abundant life.

While this may seem like splitting hairs, it is not. Even though each of us has a role to play in this breakthrough, we must first understand the differences between our roles and the role that God plays. It is not some mystical transformation that powers the breakthrough, but our energy and effort applied to those barriers that we control and that God requires us to work on. The ones that we do not control are the ones that he works on. If we are working on the side of the cave-in that he is also working on from the outside, we will see spiritual synergistic efforts. Can there be anything more purposeful than aligning our efforts with his will?

Let’s revisit the J Curve again for context. Before we can focus our efforts on those areas that will provide the greatest spiritual synergy, by applying our energy and effort toward breaking through the internal barriers, we have to determine how we got into the bottom of the curve in the first place. How is it that when the cave in takes place we lose our bearings and dig in the wrong place?. We dig and push and pry and give enormous amounts of energy and effort at breaking through those barriers that we cannot break through.

The J Curve:

A pet peeve of mine is opening up my e-mail and being flooded by well-intentioned e-mails forwarded to everybody and their brother. Someone hears a funny story or is profoundly impacted by a daily devotion and it is their lot in life to send it out to the rest of us. What makes it so frustrating for me is that every now and then I will receive an e-mail with a truth s profound that it makes the other ten trite ones seem a small price to pay for this nugget.

Dale Bissonette, a dear brother and business partner sent me this one that helps explain the bottom of the curve and the barriers in a marvelous way. It was sent to, at a time when he was struggling with what appeared to be an immovable obstacle.

I asked God, “What do you want me to do? Just tell me and I will do it.”

God answered, “I have placed a boulder in your path. I want you to go out every day and push against it.”

So I went out, day after day, pushing with all of my strength to move that boulder. Try as hard as I might, it would not budge. For weeks, then months and finally for years I pushed and pushed and it would not move.

Frustrated, I cried out to God, “Why are you doing this to me? I have done as you asked and yet I have accomplished nothing. I have toiled and toiled, yet the boulder has not budged.”

God smiled and said. “Look at your arms. Look at your chest. Look at the strength that you have built up. I never wanted you to move the boulder. I wanted to make you stronger, to be prepared for the work I have ahead on your path. It was all for you, because I see what lies ahead.”

This is a very good illustration of the external barriers we put tremendous energy and effort against in trying to break through to the other side This forwarded e-mail alone is worth a few “Just thought you might need this”, forwarded e-mails, is it not?

The external barriers at the bottom end of the J Curve, the ones that we are not intended to break through are often put there or allowed to be placed there because God is preparing us for something greater. Many of the major disappointments and trials of my life have become the greatest blessings, not because I moved them away but because they changed me. Yet it is very easy to become resentful, disgruntled or even mad at God as a result of those barriers.

The ones that we place in our own paths are there because we have failed to recognize something about the path we are on or worse we have failed to follow the call to obedience. Later we will delve into possibly the most destructive barriers emotionally and relationally that end up becoming huge spiritual barriers; grief, grievances and guilt.

Some selfish, self-centered motivations become barriers because we allow them. In each of the components of finding shalom, we will address many of them. The ones that God places before us are there for a reason, and sometimes just for a season. The ones that we place there are ours to remove. But even in that process, God is willing to do the heavy lifting when we cannot. He is willing and able to remove the biggest, self-imposed barriers so ultimately God is involved in it all. Even with our responsibility he is willing.

When the energy and effort we expend trying to move barriers creates a new strength and purpose in us, then our attitude toward the mountains that stand before us will be dramatically different. Sometimes we ask God to move them and he does. Sometime he asks us to move them and we try. Sometimes he asks us to turn around, and we should. The big difficulty in knowing what to do is the difficulty we have understanding which one God is telling us to do.

I am convinced that a good number of Christians would follow wherever Jesus told them to go, without reservation or hesitation. It isn’t a lack of faith or trust in him. It is a lack of trust in our ability to hear his voice. At most of the crucial times of decision making in my own life, hearing God was the greatest problem, not obeying God. That is why it is so much easier to act, to assume that we know what God wants or to try to find some supernatural phenomena to tell us clearly.

I have a small fleece that I use in teaching kids. Gideon lays out a fleece so I use it when telling the story. Kids love to touch it as I pass it around, allowing them to learn tactically, visually and audibly. I will admit that I have wanted to pull a Gideon, to make a deal with God using the fleece. For us, it must be faith, not fleece, “For we have the mind of Christ.”

One of the best ways to see the path ahead is related by a student of the incredible spiritual giant, Hudson Taylor. As head of China Inland Missions, Taylor served faithfully in a country in turmoil. The modern church in China owes its roots to the work of this wonderful mission and Dr. Taylor. I may not have the words exactly as he said it but the essence is the same.

Near the end of his life, after being thrown out of China, seeing hundreds of his missionaries killed and even losing his wife and several precious children, Hudson Taylor was asked, “Dr. Taylor, now that you have walked with Lord so long, is it any easier for you to see clearly the path ahead?”

Hudson Taylor replied, “My son, it is darker ahead now than at any time in my life.” When I considered these words when reading a biography about him, I wanted to put the book down and give up. If this mighty man of God came to this conclusion, what should I expect?

But in the next breath my eyes were opened. “But son, when I look back, my life is ablaze with the presence and the glory of my Lord.” I love that! When I look back too, I see the presence and the glory of Christ in my life. Absolutely, I do!  Then why is it so hard for me to trust him for just one more step? Suddenly I realize it. I am not asking for him to show me the next step. In my impatience and selfishness I want him to show me the whole path. “Light it all up God and then I won’t need you along the way.”

This is the essence of the path to shalom, to breaking through to an abundant life. You will only be shown the next step, the next stone. “I will be a lamp unto your feet.” Think about it. If you have ever been camping, using a hand held lantern, all you can see is one step ahead. What we want from God is a million candle-power beam. If he did that, why would he need to give us his Holy Spirit who is called our guide? We could see the end, see the path and take off without him.

Does that sound like what you have done? I know I have. And then, when I am off the path, alone and in despair, I realize that I have left him behind. I asked him to bless my plans, not to allow me to be patient and follow his. When my boys were little, I delighted in watching them run ahead of us. Depending on where we were, I would allow them a little room to begin to develop their own sense of independence. When we were at Niagara Falls, I was holding on to the back of them. When we were at the neighborhood park out on one of the fields, they could go much farther ahead.

Throughout this book, you will be challenged to see and to take the next step, to move forward one stepping stone at a time. Sometimes it even appears that we may be being asked to take off in the wrong direction, but God is aware of what is in our best interest. He knows which next step to take if we will learn to hear with his ears, see with his eyes and to feel with his heart.

In the business world the noise, the pace and the chaos is enormous. It can be so distracting at times that we take our eyes of the path and put them on the barriers. It is precisely because of this difficulty that we must be attuned to the leading of his Spirit in order to break through.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, he said, “It is finished.” We died up there with him. Our need to get his approval, our sin, our flesh, and our self-centered and self-destructive selves hung up there with him. “The life I live I now live through Jesus.” It is him who lives in us and through us. It is his spirit who will guide us. What a breakthrough.

Stepping Stone Two                                                                   Breakthrough Plan

List the spiritual disciplines that you often engage in: (Bible study, worship, prayer, devotional time, quiet time, fellowship, etc.) ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

Looking back over this list, do you do any of them out of a sense of obligation? ______________

Do you do them and feel that God will be pleased? ____________________________________

Do you do them for the benefit of other people? _______________________________________

Is it to serve them or to impress them? _____________________________________________

Take a moment to reflect on these biblical truths:

“For it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives through me.”

“For we have the mind of Christ.”

“For there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

“For God works out for good, all things (even barriers) for all those who love him and are called to his purpose.”

An important part of breaking through the barriers to shalom is to allow Christ to break through the barriers we have placed between us and him. I strongly recommend that you meditate on the meaning and the power of these verses. The next step on the path is a huge step. Once we understand the awesome gift we have been given at salvation, we begin to understand that most of the things we do as self are actually additional burdens. When he does them through us, they become blessings.

How can I allow his Spirit to pray through me? _____________________________________

How can I allow his spirit to teach me as I read his word? ____________________________

How can I allow his Spirit to praise and worship our Father through me? _______________

How can I spend quiet or devotional time as one with him? ___________________________

You have no obligation to these disciplines but rather an opportunity to allow him to share them through you. Try it this week. Relax, rest and relate.